Induction of malignant tumors by methylcholanthrene in transplanted uterine cornua and cervices of mice.

Spontaneous malignant epithelial tumors of the uterine cervices and cornua rarely occur in mice of most strains. One stock of mice had a high incidence of malignant uterine or cervical tumors. Cancer of the uterine cornua has not been induced experimentally although malignant tumors of the cervix and vagina have been shown, by previous investigations, to occur in mice given estrogen for long periods of time, (1, 3, 4-6, 11); or to follow the applications of carcinogens or carcinogens combined with hormones (2, 13, 14). A systematic study of the action of methylcholanthrene on the genital tissue has not been done previously. Since the later part of the 19th century many attempts to induce cancer by transplantation of adult and embryonic tissues have been reported. Nichol, 1904 (12) apparently was the first one to transplant various kinds of adult tissues, including normal and pregnant uterine epithelium. He noted that uterine epithelium was one of the adult tissues capable of proliferation after transplantation to another host; but no cancer developed in the transplants. Recent investigations by Greene (7), and Rous and Smith (15) have shown that carcinomas and sarcomas could be produced in transplanted embryonic tissue treated with methylcholanthrene. More recently Homing (10) induced cancer by transplanting adult prostatic tissue treated with methylcholanthrene. The present study concerns the malignant tumors induced by methylcholanthrene in transplanted young adult uterine cervical or cornual tissues in mice.