Review of recent cancer research / by E.F. Bashford.

  • Bashford, E. F. (Ernest Francis), 1873-
Date:
1914
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Review of recent cancer research / by E.F. Bashford. 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.

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    has grown for years without any reappearance of keratinisation. A fourth tumour of the same kind has also behaved in the latter wav, and some adenomatous tumours have likewise l!)St all evidence of acinous differentiation. There are adenomatous tumours which have exhibited a most remarkable histological change; after transplantation there is the usual undifferentiated cell mass, but areas of spindle cells appear later, indistinguish- al)le histologically from spindle celled sarcoma, which later differ- entiate again into typical acini and reproduce the picture of the mother tumour. This spindle celled appearance may also become constant, and only in the very oldest tumours may there l)e found evidence of the tendency to acinous dift'erentiation. Sim- ilar morphological changes have also been observed among the propagable sarcomata. An osteo-chondro-sarcoma has been grown in two parallel strains. One shows a great tendency to necrosis and is soft to the touch, the other feels hard and forms much collagen. Both strains have lost all tendency to form either cartilage or bone, and cannot be identified with the mother tumour except from their life histories. As a last example an adeno-carcinoma which has been grown in i8 parallel sister strains may be referred to. It illustrates alike the constancy and the variability of the histological structure and other i)rop- erties of the epithelium. I'or three years some of the strains of this tumour caused irregularly sarcomatous transformation in the stroma, and the transformation was to spindle-, round-, and p()l\mi)rph<)us-cclled sarcoma. Other sister strains ])os- sessed no such property but have grown as pure adeno-carcinoma or as pure solid carcinoma. Now, after several years, all the strains have lost the power to produce sarcoma. One of these strains, altliougli remaining a pure cpilhclial lum<iur. grows with a spindle-celled parenchyma exhibiting sligln tendency to acinous formation in ver)' old tumours. l^Vom these observations it follows that the niorphohtgical variability of tumour cells is as completely demonstrated as is the constancy with wiiich they may retain their histological features. The phenomena of growth are c(|ually interesting. They lia\e been carcfulh- noted durin<j- ten \ears for s(tnie So tumour