Tumori Journal

Leukemic myelocytes and lymphocytes can undergo « in vitro » severe alterations when kept in contact with some strains of yeasts The changes are briefly described.

The intravenous treatment with such yeasts seems to benefit the course of the myeloid and lymphatic chronic leukemia.

The present experiments may be related with the preceding studies of the Author on specific antagonism of some yeasts to cancer cells.

I - In 5 hypophysectomized rats the curve of body weight was observed: the changes from the 10 th to the 30 th day after operation were unsignificant.

II - 30 hypophysectomized rats were inoculated with Walker carcinoma and 30 normal rats were likewise inoculated and kept as controls. No statistical valuable difference in the positive taking of the transplants was observed.

III - Tumor growth (measured by the weight as well as by the volume of tumours) was reduced by about one third in the hypophysectomized rats in comparison to the controls: a positive influence of the hypophysis on tumour growth may be admitted.

IV - The hypophysis is not essential for the taking of the transplant, but exerts an influence in the following growth period.

Agar inserted into the subcutaneous tissue of rats gives rise to a granuloma with a peculiar structure. When methylcholanthrene is included in the agar the organization and the evolution of the granuloma are inhibited. Also when agar is inserted in the connective surrounding the Walker carcinoma or into the subcutaneous tissue of a tumour-bearing rat, quite an atypical granuloma is produced. It may be assumed that in such conditions the reaction properties of the connective tissue are modified.

Phlebographic investigations were undertaken in patients with mammary cancer and in patients radically operated for the same cancer, in order to study:

1) a participation of the venous blood circulation in the pathogenesis of oedema of the upper limb (chiefly of the post-operation « thick arm »);

2) the possibility of a neoplastic nature (exstrinsic or intrinsic) of the venous lesions.

Some cases are illustrated. A hindered venous outflow may be admitted and the neoplastic nature of the venous lesions appears quite evident.

Free aminoacids were estimated in benzopyrene sarcoma of rats and in some organs of the tumour-bearing rats (brain, heart, muscle, lung, liver, spleen, kidney). In the tumour the content changes according to the growth stage; in the advanced tumour a strong increase of serine-glycine, glutammic acid and treonine is observed. In the organs the free amino acid contents are diminished in the first stages of the tumour growth, while in the advanced stages there is a tendency to an increase with different values according to the organs. The oxidation process in the organ homogenate (with or without substrate addition) varies according to the stage of the tumour growth, more evidently in the organs showing a large modification of the amino acids contents.

The free amino acids content in the Walker tumour and in some organs (liver, lung and skeletal muscle) of the tumour-bearing rats has been chromatograprically determined at different times after the tumour implantation. The contents were very poor in the first stages of the tumour growth but they largely increased with the tumour growth. In the organs of the tumour-bearing rats the aminoacids contents were considerably modified in comparison with the normal animals.

A case of a largely achromic melanoblastoma of the thumb (right hand) arising from the subungual layer is described.

This tumour is worth being particularly considered, because of its unfrequent occurrence and clinical peculiarities; furthermore it may be diagnosed (at least at first) as a chronic phlogistic process.