Further Evidence in Support of the Somatic Mutation Hypothesis of the Origin of Malignancy

Abstract

In a recent publication (1) the authors presented some of the results of a statistical analysis of data collected over a twelve-year period from a large colony of pedigreed rats experimentally infested with <i>Cysticercus fasciolaris</i>, the larval form of <i>Taenia taeniaeformis (crassicollis)</i>, the common tapeworm of the cat. In that analysis the frequency of occurrence of this parasitic disease and its malignant complication, <i>Cysticercus</i> sarcoma, was considered in respect to age, sex, family, and strain. The present report deals with the relation of the tumor to the host and to the parasite. In earlier publications (1, 2, 3, 4) attention has been called to the fact that usually a <i>Cysticercus</i> sarcoma was confined to a single cyst, although the host may have had one to one hundred benign cysts. Sometimes two or more cysts were involved in the same tumor, and occasionally there were in a host two or more probably independent <i>Cysticercus</i> sarcomata. In earlier publications (1, 2, 3, 4) attention has been called to the fact that usually a <i>Cysticercus</i> sarcoma was confined to a single cyst, although the host may have had one to one hundred benign cysts. Sometimes two or more cysts were involved in the same tumor, and occasionally there were in a host two or more probably independent <i>Cysticercus</i> sarcomata.