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Transpulmonary Passage of Tumor Cell Emboli^*

( Department of Pathology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pa.)

Experiments were designed to determine whether tumor cell emboli can pass immediately through the pulmonary circulation. V₂ carcinoma and Brown-Pearce carcinoma were used in rabbits, and Walker carcinoma 256 in rats. A suspension of tumor cells was injected into an ear vein while the animal was bled simultaneously through the abdominal aorta. The aortic blood was then injected intravenously into a second animal of the same species. Tumors developing in the second animal indicated immediate passage of tumor cells through the lungs of the first animal. All animals were sacrificed 3–5 weeks after the injection of aortic blood, and a search for tumors was made. Tumors were found with all three types of cancers, indicating that the embolic tumor cells had passed through the lungs without delay. The positive results obtained with Brown-Pearce carcinoma were significantly higher than those found with the V₂ carcinoma. This difference in incidence of transpulmonary passage corresponds to the greater tendency of Brown-Pearce carcinoma to metastasize to many organs, in contrast to the behavior of V₂ carcinoma which rarely metastasizes beyond the lungs.

It is concluded that tumor cell emboli are able to pass immediately through the pulmonary circulation of both rabbits and rats and that differences in incidence of such activity apparently depend on some as yet unexplained property of the cancer cell. These results suggest that transpulmonary passage of tumor cell emboli probably occurs far more frequently in man than heretofore suspected.

^* This investigation was supported by research grants from the Anna Fuller Fund, the Special Research Fund of the Committee on the Advancement of Research of the University of Pennsylvania, and the Division of Research Grants and Fellowships of the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Public Health Service.

Received 6/16/52.

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