An appraisal of the concepts of endocrine influence on the etiology, pathogenesis, and control of abnormal and neoplastic growth.

In the attempt to orient ourselves to the mass of existing endocrinological data bearing on the cancer problem, it is essential to consider the gen eral biological framework upon which endocrinol ogy rests. With the evolution of multicellular organisms, there have developed innumerable patterns of functional integration among their constituent cellular units. These patterns range all the way from the intercellular canals of the primitive metazoa, through such complex pat terns as the nerve nets of certain invertebrates, and thence to the more elaborate neural and vascular systems of higher forms. The essential function of these systems is the integration of the vital processes of the organism as a whole. Tradi tionally, those integrative functions which appear to be physically mediated through specialized neural structures have become the province of the neurologist. The endocrinologist takes over when such integrative effects are thought to be mediated by purely chemical means. However, modern physiologists, largely conditioned by Loewi's