Originally published in Naturwissenschaftliche Rundschau 13, 247 (1958). 



60. CANCER ANAEMIA 



Paper read at the Lindau Conference of Nobel Laureates in 1957 



Numerous data are to be found in the literature on the haemoglobin 

 concentration in the blood of cancer patients; for example, Shen and 

 HoMBURGER/i^found that more than 60 per cent of the cancer patients 

 whom they studied showed a haemoglobin concentration in the blood 

 which was 20 per cent or more below the normal. 



In the study of animals with cancer it was also found, even shortly 

 after the inoculation of rats, mice, rabbits and other animals with cancer 

 cells, that the haemoglobin concentration in the blood decreases. Five 

 days after the inoculation of rats with Ehrlich's mouse carcinoma the 

 number of red blood corpuscles fell from 8.55 X 10^ to 7.62 x 10^ per mm^ 

 and the haemoglobin concentration in the blood from 96 per cent to 

 74 per cent. When 13 days had elapsed the haemoglobin concentration 

 was only 46 per cent^^) . Seven days after the inoculation of mice with 

 mammary-gland adenocarcinoma, a tumour was developed which had 

 a diameter of 0.5 cm and the haemoglobin concentration had decreased 

 by about 7 per cent; when the tumour diameter had reached 3 cm the 

 haemoglobin concentration had fallen to half the normal value. <^) 



In so far as the blood volume is normal, a comparison of the haemo- 

 globin concentrations and contents in cancer patients and healthy people 

 yields the same result. The blood volume (plasma volume) of the can- 

 cerous organism, however, is frequently not normal but enhanced. The 

 enhanced plasma volume is significant according to experimental data 

 which have been obtained in our lal)oratory (Fig. 1). They show, among 

 other results, the haemoglobin concentration, blood volume and the 

 haemoglobin content, calculated from these values, for forty-two nor- 

 mal and cancerous mice, as determined 15 days after injection with 

 Ehrlich Ascites cells. As a result of the 31 per cent enhanced plasma 

 volume of the cancerous animals their blood volume is increased, and 

 when this increase is taken into consideration it is found that the total 

 haemoglobin content of the blood in the controls and in the cancerous 

 animals shows no significant difference, whereas the haemoglobin con- 

 centration in the blood of the cancerous animals is decreased by 18.9 



