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"Benign Metastasizing Goiter" of Cohnheim: An Experimental Study with the Transplantable Thyroid Tumor of the Rat¹

Departments of Internal Medicine [J. M., G. P.], Pathology [R. H. N.], and Radiology [A. L.], University of Michigan School of Medicine, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104

Metastases of certain thyroid carcinomas are more differentiated than the primary tumor. This phenomenon was studied with an autonomous papillary-follicular tumor containing normal-appearing follicles. Injections of 100,000 trypsin-dispersed tumor cells were made in the left ventricle of the heart, the jugular and mesenteric veins, and the medullary canal of one femur and under the skin of rats. At 6 and 12 months, the animals were sacrificed 12 hr after receiving injections of ¹³¹I and thymidine-³H.

Small or microscopic implants of normal-looking thyroid tissue developed in the lungs, spleen, kidney, and vertebrae. Large implants of papillary tissue mixed with few normal-appearing follicles grew in the liver. Pure papillary and papillary-follicular implants developed in skeletal and cardiac muscle. In the femur, s.c. tissue, and mediastinum, the parent tumor was reproduced.

One vertebral implant composed only of normal-looking follicles produced a pathological fracture and invaded the spinal cord.

The function of the thyroid of all hosts was partially suppressed by the implants. The visceral implants were functionally more active than the s.c. implants. By radioautography, it was shown that the concentration of ¹³¹I was greatest within normal-appearing follicles in the lungs, and in some it was even higher than in the thyroid glands of the hosts.

The thyroid tumor cells were multipotential and formed various histological types of thyroid tumors. The differentiation of the tumor cell showed little or no dependence on thyrotropin. The differentiation of tumor cells was enhanced by normal tissue cells of some organs or some tumor cells inherently more readily differentiated in those organs.

¹ Supported by funds from the National Cancer Institute, USPHS Grant Ca-06381-06.

Received 1/ 5/70. Accepted 11/16/70.