AUTOLYSIS IN TUMORS 99 



who fouiul that cai-ciiionias of the breast contained much of their 

 nitrogen in compounds not coagulated by heat, while in the normal 

 gland practically all is coagulable. He also demonstrated an autolytic 

 property in tumor tissue, showing that tumor cells do not difTcr in this 

 respect from normal cells. Beebe'** found products of autolysis con- 

 stantly present in several tumors; namely, a carcinoma of the broad 

 ligament, a hypernephroma, an angiosarcoma, and a round-cell 

 sarcoma. 



Ncuberg^'-^ found that while, according to other observers, most 

 enzymes, as well as bacteria, are very susceptible to the action of 

 radium rays, the autolytic enzymes of cancer cells are an exception, 

 for cancer tissue exposed to radium undergoes autolysis much faster 

 than cancer tissue not exposed to radium; x-rays are less active in 

 this respect. He attributes the effects of radium on cancer to its 

 deleterious effects on the oxidizing and other enzymes of the cells, 

 destroying their activities, which results in destruction of the cells 

 by the autolytic enzymes.^" A cancer of the stomach was found to 

 contain autolytic enzymes capable of digesting lung tissue (pepsin 

 was excluded) and autolyzed cancers yielded much pentose. Blu- 

 raenthal and Wolf ^^ believe that tumor tissues have particularly active 

 autolytic enzymes, since liver tissue added to tumor tissue underwent 

 autolysis much more rapidly than normal; but tumors do not cause 

 digestion of serum plates unless many leucocytes are present (Mliller 

 and Kolaczek).^- Cancer extracts digest peptids in ways cUfferent 

 from normal tissues, which seems to indicate some fundamental ab- 

 normality in their metabolism (Abderhalden,^^ Neuberg).^^ The al- 

 most constant presence in gastric juice of patients with carcinoma 

 of the stomach, of ereptases hydrolyzing proteoses and peptids, is 

 generally attributed to the disintegration of the cancer with libera- 

 tion of these enzymes. ^^ Tumors also contain nuclease^Ho disintegrate 

 their nucleic acid, and the same outfit of purine-splitting enzymes 

 as normal tissues," so that in regard to the nucleoproteins of tumors, - 

 autolysis follows the same course as in normal tissues. 



'8 Amer. Jour. Physiol., 1904 (11), 139. 



^^Zeit. f. Krebsforschung, 1904 (2), 171; Berl. klin. Woch., 190-4 (41), 1081; 

 ibid., 1905 (42), 118; Arb. Path. Inst. Berlin, 1906, p. 593. 



8«Wohlgeinuth, Berl. klin. Woch., 1904 (41), 704, found that autolysis in 

 tuberculous lung tissue was three or four times more rapid when exposed to 

 radium rays. ^Heile (Arch. klin. Chir., 1905 (77), 107) looks upon the favorable 

 effects of x-rays as partly produced by their liberation of autolytic enzymes from 

 the leucocytes. 



«' Med. Klinik.', 1905 (1), No. 7. 



^■- Miiller and Kolaczek, Miinch. med. Woch., 1907 (54), 354; Hess and Saxl 

 }\ifn. khn. Woch., 1908 (21), 1183; Kepinow, Zeit. f. Krebsforsch., 1909 (7)' 

 517. ' 



"Zeit. physiol. Chem., 1910 (66), 277. 



8* Biochem. Zeit., 1910 (26), 344. 



soggp Jacques and Woodyatt, Arch. Int. Med., 1912 (10), 5G0; Hambureer 

 Jour. Amer. Med. Assoc, 1912 (59), 847. ' 



^^ Goodman, Jour. Exp. Med., 1912 (15), 477. 



" Wells and Long, Zeit. Krebforsch., 1913 (12), 598. 



