Neoplastic Growths 257 



in liie fii-,t report ol Iav()ra1)lc effects of colchicine on tninors in mice 

 and in one epithelial cancer in a dog,^ made in 19:^5, the author, 

 E. C Amoroso, did noi nuntion anv of the work done in Brussels, 

 hut -writes: 



Follo\\ing on some earlier ol)scr\ations (unpul)lislied. 1927) \\h\d\ I made 

 with the'late Prof. M. R. J. Hayes on the beneficial ettects of deep X-rav 

 thera])v on neoplasms in patients suffering from acute attacks of gout, wliuh 

 u-ere ix-ing treated with cokhicum. a series of experiments was . . . jihmned. * 



These results are only known in a preliminary lorm, and no detailed 

 paper appeared later. They may have influenced one re}Jort on favor- 

 ahle restdts of the treatment by colchicine of a malignant growth in 

 a mare.''' I'he fiist report in English on the action of colchicine on 

 normal and malignant cells in tissue cultures, which was pid)Hshed 

 in 19o().^" ackno^\•ledges these references and claims not to have been 

 infltienced by the work done in Brussels.-^' ^^ Jt is. however, surpris- 

 ing that this paper also describes the effects of arsenical derivatives 

 on the spindle, for this was discovered in Bclgiiun in 1929 and had 

 onlv received scant attention. '''"• -'' 



Manv experiments and also j^ractical applications of colchicine in 

 experimental and lunnan tumors weie made; this subject has been 

 reviewed recently.^' The concltrsion was reached that colchicine is 

 no cure ior cancer. However, nuich work is now in progress^"' -- m 

 the search for chemicals, more or less related to colchicine, with a 

 lower general toxicity and a more specific action against malignant 

 cells. The study of these will be described in the last chapter of this 



book. 



The disco\ery of colchicine heralded a greater search for mitotic 

 poisons, i.e., substances specifically harndul to dividing cells. This 

 subject has become so extensive that is more and more diilicuk. even 

 for specialized workers, to review it all. 



It has been shown in previous chapters what a unic[ue substance 

 colchicine is as a tool for detecting cellular proliferation. It could 

 be used as such for the study of carcinogenesis, on the one hand, and 

 malignant groAvth on the other. A surprisingly limited amount of 

 research has been conducted in this direction.-'^' •"'-■ ♦'^ However, in- 

 teresting results have been obtained recently with the use of colchi- 

 cine in vitro. This work demonstrates the quite unexpected fact that, 

 apparently, cells from acute leukemia, a disease in which cellular 

 proliferation was always believed to be extremely rapid, grow much 

 more slowlv than the normal constituents of the human bone mar- 



row.- 



A section related to the j^roblem of plant overgrowths and tumors 

 is included in this chapter because some carefid work has been done 



* E. C. Amoroso, -(.oldiicine and I imioui C.routli." Xnlinc, 135(1935) . \). lili<>. 



