The abstracts which follow have been classified for the convenience of the reader under the following headings: Experimental Studies,Animal The Abdominal Wall Tumors The Digestive Tract Nature of Cancer, Etiologic Theories The Liver and Biliary Tract General Clinical Observations The Pancreas Diagnosis and Treatment: General Mesenteric Tumors Tumors of the Skin The Spleen The Oral Cavity, Upper Respiratory The Femele Genital Tract Tract, Submaxillary Glands The Genito-Urinary System The Eye The Nervous System The Thyroid and Parathyroid Glands The Bones and Joints The Thymus Gland The Lymphatic System The Breast Statistics, Cancer Research, Education, Thoracic Tumors: Heart, L u n g s , Public Health Bronchi, and Mediastinum As with any such scheme of classification, overlapping has been unavoidable. Shall an article on “Cutaneous Melanoma, an Histological Study” be grouped with the articles on Histology or with the Skin Tumors? Shall Traumatic Cerebral Tumors go under Trauma or The Nervous System? The reader’s choice is likely to depend upon his personal interests; an editor may be governed by no such considerations. The attempt has been made, therefore, to put such articles in the group where they would seem most likely to be sought by the greatest number. It is hoped that this aim has not been entirely missed. As abstractors are never perfect, and as the opinions expressed may on occasion seem to an author not to represent adequately his position, opportunity is offered any such to submit his own views for publication. The JOURNALwill not only welcome correspondence of this nature but hopes in the future to have a large number of author abstracts, so that the writer of a paper may present his subject in his own way. 470 EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES, ANIMAL TUMORS Tumors of Animals, OTTOTEUTRCHLAENDER. Die Tiergeschwiilste, Fortschr. d. Med. 50: 1-4, and 4348, 1932. This is a general lecture delivered before the Gottingen Medical Society and, as such, it contains no new material. It is, however, a useful rbsumb of the ideas held by a lifelong investigator of cancer. Mammals, birds, fishes, amphibians, and reptiles have all been found liable to tumors; only the invertebrates appear at present to be spared. The lowest form so far found affected is the cartilaginous fishes. The great majority of animal tumors closely resemble those of the human sub- ject in both morphology and biology, though there are a few, such as carcinoma of the perianal glands of the dog and Borrelk “ tumeur molluscoide ” of the mouse, that do not occur in man. Hence deductions in respect to human tumors are permissible within reasonable limits, though one would hardly presume to suggest a diet for cancer patients on the basis of an experiment with rats and mice, par- ticularly if the investigation had been carried out with transplanted neoplasms. The Rous chicken tumor is regarded by Teutschlaender as a true sarcoma, but he does not believe that its transfer by means of a filterable agent can be used to support the parasitic hypothesis. The production of neoplasms with tar or pitch, which the author has repeatedly found to be sterile, is strong proof that cancer is not a specific infectious disease within the meaning of the bacteriologist, and the carcinogenic action of ultra- violet light and other forms of radiant energy may be interpreted in the same way. All these irritants, however, are but indirect causes; the actual specific cause, the ens malig?;itatis, comes not from without but from within, and since the pre- liminary reaction is at first confined to the cells at an irritated site, the specific cause must reside or originate in these elements. The instant at which this very essence of malignancy appears is the critical moment in carcinogenesis, the “ irrita- tion threshold,” and the nature and origin of the endogenous etiological agent are the real problem of cancer. Four stages in carcinogenesis are described: (1) a preparatory stage of inflam- mation; (2) benign tumor formation; (3) latent malignancy; (4) malignancy. The irritation threshold lies between the second and third, and after it has been passed the presence of the irritant is no longer requisite. Experimental and occupational cancers unite in showing that the cooperation of three factors is necessary for the production of a malignant tumor: (1) a factor exogenous to the cells involved, though not necessarily external to the body as a whole; (2) predisposition, which must be both local and general; (3) exposure, or opportunity for the agent to exert its action. Tbough all three must be present, their relative magnitude may vary; thus the more powerful or more suitable is one, the more feeble may the others be. WM.H. WOGLOM 471 472 ABBTRAUTS Production of Malignant Tumors by the Inoculation of Embryonal Tissues, EUGENIEKLEE-RAWIDOWICX. Erzeugung von bbartigen Geschwtilsten durch Ubertragung von Embryonalgewebe, Deutsche med. Wchnschr. 58: 1439- 1440, 1932. Experimental Production of Malignant Mouse Tumors by the Inoculation of Embryonal Cells into Tarred Animals, EUQENIEKLEE-RAWIDOWICX. Experi- mentelle Eraeugung von bosartigen Mausetumoren durch ubertragung von Embryonalzellen auf geteerte Tiere, Ztschr. f. Krebsforch. 38: 35-51, 1932. Mice were given subcutaneously once a week 0.05 C.C. of a high-boiling-point tar fraction in a 1 : 10 dilution in olive oil. After from five to twenty-one such treatments had been administered, 0.5 or 1.0 C.C. of mouse embryo in a little Ringer’s solution was injected at a new site and the tar was discontinued. Among 33 surviving mice, 5 sarcomas and 1 carcinoma developed within a relatively short time, that is to say, in from thirty-nine to eighty-two days after the introduction of embryo. No malignant tumors appeared in animals treated with tar alone, and in other controls given only embryo emulsion nothing but transient embryomas could be found. The one sarcoma that was transplanted proved to be easily propagable and is now in its twenty-eighth generation. The writer suggests that the tar, which begins to exert its action after the ninth injection, may effect some alteration in metabolism, pointing out that this irritant requires a longer period to initiate the malignant change in adult celle than in those of the embryo, whose metabolism more nearly resembles that of the tumor cell. [The photomicrographs (in Ztschr. f. Krebsforschung) sustain the writer’s contention, with the exception of Fig. 11, illuatrating the carcinoma, which is not convincing to the abstractor.] WM. H. WOQLOM Mesoblastic Tumours Following Intraperitoneal Injections of 1 : 2 : 5;: 6- Dibenzanthracene in a Fatty Medium, HAROLDBURROWS. Proc. Roy. SOC. London, Series B, 111: 238-246, 1932. Experiments are recorded in which peritoneal sarcomas were produced in 27 rats and mice out of 200; 107 died without tumors and 66 are still living. The actual tumor incidence is much higher, however, than these figures would suggest, for the work is not yet finished. Among the 10 rats first injected, all of which are now dead, 8 developed definite tumors; of the remaining 2, one died and was eaten by ita cage-mates, so that no post-mortem examination was possible, while the other, killed early in the experiment, had a peritoneal thickening which suggested that tumor formation might have occurred later. The average life of the eight rats with sarcoma, after the beginning of the experiment, was forty weeks, the shortest period being twenty-three and the longest forty-nine weeks. Direct extension of a neoplasm into the pleural cavity through the diaphragm occurred in 2 instances, and the invasion of muscle was a common finding in microscopic preparations, but no extraperitoneal metastases were found. The carcinogenic agent employed was 1 : 2 : 6 : &dibenzanthracene, in the form of an 0.1 per cent emulsion in olive oil and a watery solution of gum acacia. The dose at first was 0.5 C.C. for rats and 0.05 C.C. for mice, administered once a week, but these amounts were soon raised to 1.0 C.C. and 0.1 C.C. The respective parts played in carcinogenesis by the hydrocarbon itself and by the fatty vehicle in which it was given must remain undetermined until the completion of the entire experiment. Control animals bearing no tumors live much longer than mice and rats with tumors, and the investigation cannot be regarded as finished until the last control is dead, which may be a matter of several years. WM,H. WOGLOM EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES, ANIMAL TUMORS 473 Production of Tumors Morphologically Resembling Sarcoma in Nereis diversi- color O.F.M. by Inoculation of B. tumefaciens Sm., J. ANDR~~THOMAS. Production de tumeurs d’apparence sarcomateuse chez l’ann6lide Nereis diversicolor O.F.M. par inoculation de Bacterium tumefaciens Sm., Compt. rend. Acad. d. sc. 193: 1045-1047, 1931. The oocytes of Nereis diversicolor sometimes degenerate, giving rise to a reaction which terminates in benign fibroblastic tumors. The inoculation of B. tumefaciens into the neighborhood of such growths caused the transformation of these benign lesions into growing, invasive masses which resembled sarcoma in their histology. The time required to bring about this change in the two instances described was two and nine days respectively. WM. H. WOGLOM Experimental Malpighian Metaplasia of the Gastric Mucosa of the Dog, ANTONIO MORATTI. Metaplasia malpighiana sperimentale della mucosa gastrica di cane, Tumori 18: 101-139, 1932. Eight dogs were used to determine the carcinogenic power of nicotine: (1) In two dogs portions of cigars were placed in the gallbladder. Chronic in- flammatory changes in the gallbladder were the only result. (2) Two dogs were given a series of injections of a sterile 10 per cent solution of nicotine into the mammary gland.