EFFECTS OF PROLONGED OESTROGEN ADMINISTRATION IN FEMALE NEW WORLD MONKEYS, WITH OBSERVATIONS ON A PERICARDIAL NEOPLASM

Abstract

Whereas monkeys of the Old World, especially rhesus, have repeatedly been the object of experimental research on the tumorigenic action of oestrogens the authors of the present work have no knowledge of papers dealing with experimental or spontaneous neoplasms in New World monkeys. Zuckerman [1940] mentions unpublished experiments of Russel & Zuckerman [1939] on a marmoset in which cystic glandular hyperplasia of the endometrium was produced. Insular or nodular epithelial proliferation and metaplasia and likewise hyperplasia of muscular and conjunctive tissues have been induced by a prolonged treatment with oestrogens in the genital region of both sexes in macacus and baboon [for literature see Zuckerman, 1940; Engle, Krakower & Haagensen, 1943]. There are also statements about spontaneous tumours in different Old World primates [Engle & Stout, 1940]. The object of our research with New World monkeys was related to former findings in the guinea-pig subjected to a prolonged administration of