120 Tests in the Diagnosis of Cancer [March^ 



Neutral-sulfur TEST. Salomon and Saxl (15) have de- 

 scribed a neutral-sulfur reaction in the urine. Like all the other 

 tests in this connection, it has given excellent results in some hands 

 but, in others, has proved valueless. The abnormal constituent in 

 the urine of carcinomatous patients is a neutral-sulfur fraction, the 

 sulfur of which can be split off by means of hydrogen peroxide, and 

 can be determined as barium sulfate. Positive urines yield o.oio to 

 0.018 gm. of barium sulfate from this fraction, for 100 cc. of urine. 

 Of 41 Carcinoma cases examined by Salomon and Saxl, 30 Werte 

 positive, 4 faintly positive, i questionable, and 6 negative. Of 182 

 normal urines, 6 were positive, 3 faintly positive, i questionable and 

 172 negative. 



Petersen (16) divided his cases into three classes. {A) Clin- 

 ically non-cancerous suspects: of 26 patients examined, 25 gave a 

 negative Salomon and Saxl neutral-sulfur reaction. {B) CHnically 

 Cancer suspects : of 20 cases examined, 5 were negative, 2 alternately 

 positive and negative reactions, and 13 cases positive. (C) Manifest 

 Cancer: of 19 cases, 17 always gave a good positive reaction; the 

 two negatives were icteric and cachectic. Dozzi (17) found that 

 the test was invariably negative in all his patients free from Cancer 

 or tuberculosis, but the frequency of the positive responses in tuber- 

 culous patients detracted from its value as a sign of Cancer, although 

 Cancer is rarely mistaken for tuberculosis. The only Cancer cases 

 that gave negative results were those in which the Cancer had been 

 excised. Murachi (18), also, found an increase in the neutral 

 sulfur from Cancer patients. The coefficient, according to him, may 

 be 3.8 percent of the total sulfur. 



In contrast to the foregoing, Pribram (19) found that only 60 

 percent of Cancer patients gave a positive Salomon-Saxl test and that 

 the test is, therefore, far from specific. Alekseev (20) came to a 

 similar conclusion. Mazzitelli (21) has studied this test in 50 

 cases of Cancer, with and without cachexia. Of 18 cases of the 

 latter variety, the test was positive in 14; but also in 8 of 10 cases of 

 tuberculous cachexia, and 16 of 23 cases of cachexia of various orig- 

 ins, including 11 with Cancer and 4 with tuberculosis, Greenwald 

 (22) concluded that this test has no value in the diagnosis of Cancer. 



Stadtmüller and Rosenbloom (23) studied sulfur metabolism, in 

 general, in Carcinoma. They found that the lowest average total- 



