Emanuel Revici, MD: efforts to publish the clinical findings of a pioneer in lipid-based cancer therapy—Part 1

Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, August-Sept, 2004 by Marcus A. Cohen

Repeatedly, Revici's studies on lipid function pointed the way to findings that predate ideas widely accepted today. Decades before Bengt Samuelsson reported on leukotrienes, earning a Nobel Prize, Revici essentially described them, indicating their crucial role in inflammation. (6,7)

It was characteristic of him, though, to view these compounds as part of a much larger picture. Instead of choosing to concentrate on this one topic for years, he swiftly moved on to elucidate the role of bioactive lipids in the early stages of cellular and systemic host defense processes. Intervention by lipids at this level of the body's defenses, he reasoned, might affect outcome, and even the extent of mobilization, at other levels.

As he developed his theories and applications, Revici incorporated another basic insight: The damage caused by disease frequently isn't done by the pathogenic focus alone, but by the body's defense mechanisms as well. He may not have been the first to codify this key insight as a therapeutic principle, but once more he seems to have preceded the mainstream in incorporating the principle to treat patients.

Because Revici believed that these defense mechanisms might do more harm than the pathogenic focus itself, (once activated into diseqilibrium), he devoted himself to devising therapeutic agents that could restore normal bodily function.

Based on his European research, he utilized the properties of elements to alter different levels of function, and the ability of lipids to induce longer-lasting alterations, to create a large series of therapeutic compounds in which elements were conjugated into lipids. He thereby anticipated, again by decades, interest in lipids as carriers of pharmaceutically useful compounds.

In sum, the different paths of research Revici followed throughout his career enabled him to pioneer, intentionally, with foresight, a great number of therapeutic compounds designed to produce specific effects on the function of normal and diseased tissues.

Without exaggeration, then, one may say that he developed a theory of rational drug design long before the concept entered the imagination of the larger scientific community.

Next month: Publications

References

1. Revici E, Research in Physiopathology as Basis of Guided Chemotherapy: With Special Application to Cancer. D. Van Nostrand, Princeton (1961); also: Schrauzer G N 1981 Selenium and cancer: Historical developments and perspectives. In Spallholz J E et al (eds) Selenium in Biology and Medicine. AVI Press, Westport, pp. 98-102.

2. Revici E, 1961, op cit.; Also: Simopoulos A P, Robinson J 1998 The Omega Plan. Harper Collins, NY, pp. 61-74.

3. Revici E, 1961, op cit.; Also: Mizushima Y et al, Use of lipid microspheres as a drug carrier for antitumor drugs. J Pharm, Pharmacol 1986;38:132-134.

4. Revici E, Affidavit, sworn and notarized 2/3/55. This document serves as the basis for all biographical information included here.

5. Prof. Mark D. Noble originally prepared the section here on Revici's scientific findings and medical applications for an appraisal of Revici published in The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 1998, Vol. 4 (No. 2).