UTERINE ADENOMATA IN THE RABBIT : II. HOMOLOGOUS TRANSPLANTATION EXPERIMENTS

The behavior of a transplanted adenocarcinoma of the uterus of a rabbit has been studied through 12 serial generations in the anterior chamber of the eye and 6 serial generations in the testicle. The transplanted tumor is characterized by slow growth which is at first expansive and later invasive, by an ability to form more or less differentiated structures in response to different environmental conditions and by late metastasis. The endocrinological changes that distinguish animals bearing the spontaneous tumor do not occur in animals bearing the transplanted tumor. Various experiments were undertaken in an attempt to discover the nature of the factors determining the characteristics of the spontaneous and of the transplanted tumor. It was found that successful transplantation was followed by a phase during which animals were refractory to reinoculation. The results of transplantation into the eyes of animals with spontaneous tumors suggested the existence of a similar phase during the early development of the tumor but the number of observations was not sufficiently numerous to warrant definite conclusions.