Sarcoma development occurring during the propagation of a haemorrhagic adeno-carcinoma of the mamma of the mouse / by B.R.G. Russell.

  • Russell, B.R.G.
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Sarcoma development occurring during the propagation of a haemorrhagic adeno-carcinoma of the mamma of the mouse / by B.R.G. Russell. 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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    Haaland (1905 Bashford, Murray, and Cramer (1905 '’^for mouse tumours. This intravascular growth, excepting for a delicate layer of endothelial cells over the surface, was quite devoid of any supporting tissue, and accordingly showed no arrangement of the parenchyma into acini or alveoli. An earlier stage of this condition is shown in Plate XVIII. Fig. 2, where one end of a small artery is occupied by an aggregation of carcinoma cells. The perivascular space of this vessel shows secondary changes of an inflammatory character. Further on in the series of sections this intravascular growth breaks through the vessel wall, proliferates first in the perivascular space, and later through the lung tissue generally. In all the large nodules the growth was of a very pronounced acinous character, the blood vessels were only of a medium size, and the stroma was very delicate (Plate XVIII. Fig. 3). The elastic tissue of the lung was present in abundance at the peri- phery of the metastases, around which it was arranged concentrically, the result of the rapid growth of the tumour cells. Of the ten tumours obtained in the series 100*/1 two were trans- planted and examined; the first tumour, 27 days old, gave series 100/2b, the second tumour, 43 days old, gave series 100/2c. transplantability in diflerent generations, and the rise when carcinoma was replaced by sarcoma. Carcinoma, — . — . — . — Carcino-sarcoma, Sarcoma. The percentage of success from these two inoculations, as reckoned by dividing the total number of mice remaining alive after three weeks by the number of progressively growing tumours, was 66 per cent, and 4 per cent, respectively. It is from the former series, 100/2b, that the main stem of this tumour has been propagated, and whilst occasionally other side steins have been carried on for two or three generations, none of them has been continuously propagated, and series 9a, from which all our present material with its numerous sarcomatous descendants is derived, is the direct lineal descendant, through seven generations, of series 2b. Reference to Fig. C, which is a percentage curve of the propagation of this tumour, shows at a glance the line of propagation. The ordinates represent percentages of successes, whilst the abscissae represent the dates on which transplantation was carried out.^ When the experiments are so arranged it will be seen that the transplantability of the tumour is a very inconstant factor. Thus the rise on passing from the first to the second generation is followed by a sudden drop on passing into the third, which, in turn, is followed by a second rise and a second drop. These fluctuations have been analysed in a ^ The interpretation and the method of constructing such charts is fully described by Bashford, Murray, and Bowen, “The E.xperimental Analysis of the Growth of Cancer,” Proc. Roy. Soc. London, 1906, vol. Ixxviii. B.