The Development of Sarcoma in Mice Injected with Hormones or Hormone-Like Substances

Abstract

Reference has been made in earlier papers (1, 2) to the development of sarcoma in a series of mice in which we were studying the carcinomatous changes in the mammary gland as well as in the vagina and cervix under the influence of estrogenic hormones. The formation of sarcoma following the injection of estrogenic hormones had previously been observed by Cori (3) in a mouse, in which it developed adjacent to an oil cyst. The development of sarcomas has been recorded also by Gardner, Smith, Allen and Strong (4), and by Burrows and other investigators, both in rats and mice injected with cancerigenic hydrocarbons (5–10). Recently Lacassagne (11) described the appearance of spindle-cell sarcomas in mice injected with four estrogenic hormones. Since our earlier reports we have found several additional sarcomas in mice, produced by the injection of hormones, and in particular one originating in striated muscle tissue. These observations will be described here and we shall include, also, in our report sarcomas in mice injected with lutein hormones and with liver extract prepared for the treatment of pernicious anemia.