A course of lectures on tumors given under the aupices of the Cancer Commission of Harvard University.

  • Harvard University. Cancer Commission.
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A course of lectures on tumors given under the aupices of the Cancer Commission of Harvard University. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

    15/86 (page 13)
    it is obvious that production of tumors by the experimental inoculation of tumor tissue is brought about by the transplanta- tion of cells rather than by the introduction of a virus. The tumors, therefore, do not develop from the tissues of the inocu- lated animal, but from the transplanted tumor cells. In a former publication^ I called attention to the frequency of tumors in certain families of mice. In one family of 25 mice there were 4 primary adenocystomata of the lung. Another family was derived by the breeding together of the offspring of a female mouse .with a large adenocystoma of the lung. After 100 mice were obtained, the breeding was stopped, and the mice were then kept under observation. Of this family of 100 mice, 89 are now dead. Definite tumors were found in 15 of these. Practically 1 mouse in 6 developed a tumor. A considerable number of these mice died while young of infectious diseases, accidental conditions, etc. Inasmuch as in the above estimate all were counted irrespective of the age attained, the proportion of those developing tumors is large. Thirteen of these mice presented adenocystomata of the lung similar to that which was found in the mother of the family, 2 had mammary tumors in addition to lung tumors, and 1 had double ovarian tumors. Although the relation of heredity to tumors is studied much more readily in short-lived animals than in man, it is attended with difficulties, especially in the way of providing controls. In this instance another family of mice, which had never devel- oped a tumor, was taken for comparison with the one just men- tioned. A tumor of the lung was finally found in a member of the supposedly insusceptible family. It would be necessary, therefore, to show a constant and frequent occurrence of tumors in a given family to establish the existence of an inherited tendency. Another phase of the study of inheritance was taken up, employing an inoculable tumor. There are numerous observa- tions on racial differences of susceptibility to the inoculable tumors. The attempt has not to my knowledge been made of carrying out systematic breeding experiments for the deter- mination of the part played by heredity. The tumor used in this case originated in a Japanese waltzing mouse, and proved 1 Fourth report of the Cancer Commission of Harvard University, 1907