Some conditions in the growth of tumors / by Leo Loeb.

  • Loeb, Leo, 1869-1959.
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Some conditions in the growth of tumors / by Leo Loeb. 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.

    2/12 (page 2)
    greater than the actual proliferation which takes place under the ordinary conditions of life. How much of the potential energy is transformed into actual growth depends to some measure on external conditions. Changes in external conditions may in- crease and decrease the energy of growth. The cancer problem can be formulated in the following way: (1) —Under what conditions does a tissue assume an increased energy of growth? But this question is not sufficiently comprehensive. We notice, for instance, an increased growth energy under such external changes which lead to woundhealing. But in this case the additive proliferative power comes soon to rest. In cancer an indefinite growth is seen. It is therefore evident that one generation of cells must transmit the gain in energy to the fol- lowing generations indefinitely and we are thus con- fronted with the second question in the cancer problem,—• (2) —Under what conditions does a hereditary transmission of an acquired increase of growth en- ergy to the succeeding cell generations take place? And lastly, a third question arises in the cancer problem, which however, is perhaps less important than the two prior ones, (3)—Why do we find an infiltrating growth in cancer? Why do the prolif- erating cells penetrate into adjoining tissues in- stead of merely pushing them aside? This may be due to an inequality or irregularity in proliferation; it may also be due to chronic inflammatory changes and softening in the neighboring tissues, or to an increased proteolytic activity of the cancerous cells. However this may be, we shall here give our atten- tion only to the first two questions which are of fundamental importance. An increase in the energy of tissue growth can