A Note on the Absence of Adrenalin in Malignant Renal Hypernephromas

The results of these experiments show, in short, that, by the method employed, adrenalin could neither be demonstrated in the specimen of blood, nor in either of the two specimens of malignant hypernephroma, nor in the specimen of metastatic tissue from the adrenal tumor which closely resembled a malignant hypernephroma. The results agree with those of Greer and Wells in showing that no adrenalin is found in malignant renal hypernephromas; and the further observation is made that no adrenalin content of the blood of a patient with malignant renal hypernephroma could be shown by the rabbit uterus strip test. Those rare tumors which arise from medullary adrenal tissue might be expected to contain adrenalin; but as pointed out by Greer and Wells, since the ordinary malignant renal hypernephroma arises from adrenal rests which consist of cortical tissue, and since the cortex of adrenal contains no adrenalin, no adrenalin should be expected in the tumors arising from such cortical tissue.