CULTIVATION IN VITRO OF RAT SARCOMA

Abstract

In a recent note¹we showed that the method of cultivating tissuesin vitro, devised by Harrison for the study of the developing nerve-fiber in frog embryos, and applied with modifications to the tissues of higher animals by Carrell and Burrows, could be adapted easily to the transplantable sarcomata of rats and mice. The present paper is concerned with the application of this method to the investigation of the nature of tumor immunity. The phenomena of resistance and susceptibility to the inoculable tumors of these animals have been exhaustively studied. It may be stated summarily that immunity to tumor growth does not correspond to any of the types of immunity produced by the reaction of the body to infective organisms and their products. Specific antibodies have never been demonstrated in the bloodserum of animals immune to cancer. Moreover, Russell²has shown that, in immune mice, inoculated cancer tissue