Our Spring Research Festival tradition is to choose something found in nature—plant or animal—that produces substances shown to have biochemical activity in fighting or preventing disease. In past years, we have featured the rosy periwinkle of Madagascar, Catharanthus roseus , the marine cone snail, Conus textilis, the African clawed frog, Xenopus laevis, the honeybee, Apis mellifera, and the gila monster (Heloderma suspectum and H. horridum).

The “Cancer Tree,” a member of the tupelo family, is known by several additional non-scientific names: the Happy Tree and the Tree of Life. Those names are honestly earned. This is the tree that gave us the anticancer compound camptothecin, a substance found in the tree’s bark. The resulting drugs, topotecan and irinotecan hydrochloride are useful in treating breast cancers, ovarian cancer, colon cancer, malignant melanoma, small cell lung cancer, thyroid cancers, lymphomas and leukemias. The compounds, which have antiviral as well as anti-tumor properties, are also used for the treatment of AIDS.

In 2002, the FDA approved another compound similar to topotecan as second-line therapy for certain cervical ovarian and lung cancers. The new compound, through regulating gene expression, can block growth of blood vessels that tumor cells need to survive. The tumor, deprived of its blood supply, can then shrink and die. The National Cancer Institute’s Developmental Therapeutics Program is responsible for the find. Giovanni Melillo, MD, together with colleagues Robert Shoemaker, PhD, and Nick Scudiero, PhD, devised a high-throughput screen for 2,000 compounds and found three other effective compounds in addition to the topotecan analog.

The Cancer tree is native to China, growing up to 75 feet tall in warmer climates. In climates such as Maryland, the tree is easily grown from seed and can be kept indoors with ample warmth and bright light, when pruned to manageable size.

The Spring Research Festival organizers, in a nod to both the cancer tree and to fostering biodiversity for the sake of research have ordered a supply of Camptotheca acuminata seeds, and will be awarding them to Festival participants. The recipients will receive instructions along with their botanic treasures to ensure that both have the best chances to live long and prosper.