The present aspect of the cancer problem / by Roswell Park.

  • Park, Roswell, 1852-1914.
Date:
[1902?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The present aspect of the cancer problem / by Roswell Park. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    21/24 (page 19)
    is. The former of these two tumors rented all the characteristics of a heal lympho-sarcoma. The lat- contained distinct evidences of seminated tubercle, and within its erior a distinct caseated mass, )und which tubercular bacilli were ;ily found. Tubercular infection complicating an eady present tumor is probably j least known of the various pro¬ ves here reported. There is no estion, however, but that tubercle cilli may penetrate into a cancerous )wth and give rise there to tubercu- ■ foci, which latter may undergo the iinary changes common to such ions in other parts of the body, lumgarten and Crone (Arbeit. a. d. ith. Inst. zu. Tubingen Bd. II.) re- rt, for instance, the following: A man of forty-four, operated on for mall papilloma of the larynx, which len examined was found to be a iall epithelioma. Some months later recurred, tracheotomy was done, d the examination of portions of _ e tumor revealed the presence of dis- ict tubercular granulations. This was lowed by extirpation of the larynx, which careful study showed a corn- nation of cancer and tuberculosis, e same association being found in e lymphatics of the neck. Baum- <rten, moreover, has observed about e same combination in a case of ncer of the rectum which was com- icated by most evident tubercular anulations in the cancerous tissue, riedlander (Virchow's Archiv. Vol. >) has briefly reported the details of case of cancer of the stomach, devel- >ed upon the base of a round ulcer, hich base was surrounded with tuber- ilosis. Cordua. (Arbeit. a. d. Path, ist. zu Gottingen, 1893, P- 147) studied a cancer of the oesophagus secondarily infected with bacilli, and came to the conclusion that the can¬ cerous surface served as a point of least resistance and was attacked accordingly by the bacilli. Claude (<Cancer et Tuberculose, Paris, 1900 p. 64) has reported the instance of a man of sixty-one entering hospital with an intense diarrhoea which had lasted for four months, and who at the same time had most marked cachexia. The autopsy showed ex¬ tensive tubercular lesions of the large intestine, the lun.es were also involved, while in the stomach a large cancerous tumor was found, surrounded by distinctly tubercular lesions. Evi¬ dently a portion of the tumor itself was breaking down with tubercular ulceration. The following instance, illustrative of the close relation between injury and cancer growth, is reported by Steinhaus in a recent Polish journal (Medycyna, iqoo No. 47). A woman of forty applied a blister to her fore¬ head on account of headache. As a result of this, there formed an ulcer which would not heal, and in spite of constant treatment, suppurated and discharged for five months. After that length of time the base of borders were excised and the defect filled by Thiersch grafts. After a few weeks, ulceration began at the point of operation and the Thiersch grafts were once more tried. Microscopic examination of the excised fragments showed the borders of the ulcer to have become cancerous. The case seems the more interesting as showing the peculiar effect of a chemical irri¬ tation applied for but a short time, since it is usually only long continued irrita¬ tion which provokes cancerous growths.