Experimental Cancer of the Lung

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Abstract
The induction of cancer of the lung by administration of chemical carcinogens into the respiratory passages of experimental animals is of interest because of the increasing incidence of pulmonary cancer in man and the urgent need for its control. An analysis of the literature and of some of our own data showed that experimental lung cancer has been produced only in a few instances. The author believes that the critical moment in lung-cancer induction is the fixation or deposition of the carcinogenic substance in the lung tissue. Bronchogenic cancer was induced in about 30 percent of rats by intratracheal intubation of 6 to 10 mg of 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene with black-ink powder, in recent experiments performed in our laboratory. These cancers were usually epidermoid carcinomas originating from metaplastic bronchial epithelium, but there were also some adenocarcinomas. Both epidermoid carcinoma and adenocarcinoma gave rise to metastases. Many multicentric focal proliferations of bronchial epithelium, both adenomatous and metaplastic, were, in all probability, morphologically visible precursors of lung cancer. These proliferations usually arose in the areas of application of the carcinogen and were unrelated to inflammation.