Dr Dimitri Viza and Dr Giancarlo Pizza are co-authors of Transfer Factor in Virus-Associated Malignancies: An Underestimated Weapon in Prevention and Treatment of Cancer, recently published in Advances in Tumor Virology.  We asked Dr Levine to tell us about the background to the paper by Dr Viza, Pizza and himself.

To start please tell us about the genesis of your paper.  Why did you consider it to be important that it should be written?  How does it advance existing knowledge in the field?

From 1954, when the first experimental evidence was published and the term ‘transfer factor’ was coined, the number of publications about Transfer Factors increased rapidly, reaching a peak in the mid-70s, but since then has been declining.

The reason for this decline was not the impossibility to reproduce previously reported results, but the failure to identify the biochemical structure of the active moieties.  Further research on the subject has been impeded as funding dried out.   Some of us have been and still are actively involved in this research that includes in vitro tests, animal experiments, and human clinical trials, and we are convinced that these molecules can be used with enormous benefit for the treatment and the prevention of human viral infections.

When writing a paper what challenges do you face?  How did these challenges impact this particular paper?  Is there anything you plan to do differently in the future to avoid them?

Writing a review on a subject with such a vast number of references (exceeding one thousand) is always a challenge.  Sorting out the relevance of the reports to the intended review and trying to understand and comment on conflicting results has been an additional difficulty, especially when the subject is marred with controversy.  This is a difficulty that all writers of a bona fide review have to face, but proved to be less problematic for us than anticipated.  There were very few reports contradicted positive data, and every time that this happened, a plausible explanation was at hand.

Why did you choose to submit your paper to this journal?  What qualities of the journal did you find particularly appealing?  How long have you been aware of the journal?  Did publishing a paper in the journal alter your view of it?

We chose this journal because of a previous publication experience, in which the paper was extremely well reviewed, receiving important and constructive suggestions, had a short publication time, and had quite high impact, with more than 1500 people being interested in reading the paper.

What is your opinion of other papers recently published within the subject area of your paper?  

Very few papers on transfer factor have been published recently.  All confirm activity of lymphocyte dialysates, but there are some reports confusing non-antigen specific effects with antigen-specific ones.  This is a regrettable confusion that without further research and additional data is bound to increase.

How has the writing of this paper and its underlying research changed or developed your views or understanding of the field?

Before starting this enterprise, we were all convinced of the effectiveness of transfer factor in treating or preventing certain viral infections, its molecular reality, and the need to encourage further research in order to answer fundamental questions that undermine its credibility.  Studying and collating nearly one hundred reports, several of which referred to clinical results, it became evident that the need for further research was not an exercise in order to merely satisfy an intellectual challenge, but rather a moral duty for medically qualified scientists.  A basic principle of science is that findings need to be independently reproducible by different research groups, and we believe that the present review will stimulate interest in the scientific community.  We already have obtained feedback from potential collaborators which will determine our future research plans.

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