Cancer and precancerous changes, their origin and treatment / by G.H. Fink.

  • Fink, George Herbert.
Date:
1903
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Cancer and precancerous changes, their origin and treatment / by G.H. Fink. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    VII. Mr. Plimmer’s Opinion.—Mr. Plimmer tells us that the histology of cancer has a great likeness to chronic infectious dis- eases, and that it runs the course and presents lesions of chronic infectious disease ; that the tumour is the result of the reaction of the healthy organism against the endocellular parasite of cancer. He further tells us, that the characteristic mark of cancer is the proliferation of epithelial cells, and the epithelium is always derived from pre-existent epithelium in the part where cancer begins; that they change their anatomical characters in some degree, and are not physiologically or morphologically “ atypical,” but differ in size, and can find their way into any other part of the body possessing differences in staining property. One cannot but agree with Plimmer that cancer has a great likeness to chronic infectious disease; but as to the tumour being the result of the reaction of the “ healthy organism ” against the endocellular parasite, the question is one which might be con- sidered still under discussion and requiring demonstration. The epithelium, moreover, might presumably be derived from pre-existent epithelium in the part where cancer begins; but there is nothing to prevent a transplantation of certain cells or organisms from a distant part to a point where there is a lesion, and this might be from a residual embryonic nest containing the active principle of mucus or mucin* which has undergone those “other changes” spoken of before in connection with inflammation. One of the strongest characteristics of cancer is its rapidity of growth, and its tendency to break down after a certain stage and to ulcerate, creating a foul putrescent odour ; and if interfered with surgically, to produce secondary growths. It also undermines the surrounding tissues, poisoning the whole system with its dis- charges, creating a peculiar starvation of the body which re- sults in the cancerous cachexia. On removal by operation, one of the features is a repetition of the growth, either locally near the site of the operation, or at a distance, by metastasis or meta- morphosis. These latter features point to a particular soil in which cancer grows and develops more readily and to greater advantage, and this soil need not be always inherited; but may be acquired by certain habits which create the ferment. It also points to certain pabula either created in the soil within, or introduced from without, or through external causes operating by environment, which affords a further additional nourishment for the up-keep of the pabula or nourishment for the development of cancer. At a later stage in the development of the disease, the whole system is permeated or saturated through the blood and tissues, giving rise to the cancerous cachexia by an auto-infection. Most probably a specific ferment is created for each particular form of cancer which is capable of travelling to other parts of the system, carrying along with it certain cells which are detached, and whose morphological characters are assumed by the parasite which creates the ferment; or it enters into the cell and there loses