THE MECHANISM OF CANCER METASTASIS

Abstract

In previous articles¹ it has been shown that cancer may be only the result of a primary crowding of cells and a relative reduction of the blood supply to the mass. The change leading to cancer is not a primary change in the cell but in the organization of the tissue. The cancer cell grows and has the morphology peculiar to it on account of its immediate environment. These changes that the cells suffer in the cancerous tissue are reversible. These cells in an environment similar to that of the normal organism revert to nongrowing differentiated cells. They continue to grow in the cancer because the cancerous organization is able to destroy the surrounding normal tissue and blood vessels and reproduce the conditions necessary for the continuation of their growth. It has been asked if cancer is due to such conditions how may the cancer cells break loose from the