The Marcus Beck Laboratory reports.

Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The Marcus Beck Laboratory reports. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    along the pseudopodia of the cells at times, and were frequently extruded from the ends of those processes into the surrounding medium. Fig. 7 shows the granules in the fine pseudopodia very clearly. Another point of interest in connexion with this tumour tissue was the development of stars of fine crystals (fig. 5, Plate I) after the culture preparation had been kept for about four weeks. These stars also developed in the tubes of ascitic fluid to which pieces of the original tumour had been added, and incubated for a month or more. They appeared to resemble tyrosine crystals in some respects, and evidently they indicate the presence of some chemical substance in the tumour. (b) Carcinomatous gland from the neck, secondary to carcinoma of the floor of the mouth. Small pieces of this tissue were inoculated into six variations of fowl plasma medium as follows :— (1) Fowl plasma one part plus extract of the cancer gland one part. (2) Fowl plasma one part plus extract of the cancer gland one part and of chick embryo one part. (3) Fowl plasma one part plus extract of chick embryo one part. (4) Fowl plasma one part plus Ringer’s solution two parts plus cancer gland extract two parts. (5) Fowl plasma one part plus glucose Ringer’s solution one part and cancer extract one part. (6) Fowl plasma one part plus ascitic fluid one part plus cancer gland extract one part. Successful growth was only obtained in No. (3) medium, and very slight growths occurred in (2), (4) and (5), and no growth was observed in (1) and (6). It appeared, therefore, that fowl plasma plus extract of chick embryo formed the most suitable soil. In this medium an outgrowth of branching cells from the original tissue was seen after forty hours’ incubation at 37'5° C., as seen in fig. 18, Plate III. After five days’ incubation there appeared, in several places, solid buds com- posed of epithelial cells, and these increased in size day by day (figs. 13, 14, and 15). Fig. 16 shows an outgrowth of new epithelial cells (pre- sumably cancer cells) after nine days’ incubation, and fig. 17 shows the further extension of the same portion four days later — i.e., after thirteen days’ incubation. At the same time the long branching cells continued to extend further into the medium (fig. 19). The latter most probably represent the growth of the stroma cells of the cancerous gland tissue. It is interesting to note that no such branching cells grew from the epithelioma of the ovary already described, and we have already pointed out that that tumour consisted only of epithelial cells, and apparently contained no stroma. It was a soft, friable tumour.
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