Growth of Sarcoma and Carcinoma. 59 
33 (558) 
A comparison of the growth of sarcoma and carcinoma 
cultivated in vitro. 1 
By R. A. LAMBERT and FREDERIC M. HANES. 
[From the Department of Pathology, College of Physicians and 
Surgeons.] 
We have used in this study a rat sarcoma, a mouse sarcoma 
and a mouse carcinoma, transplantable tumors of a high degree of 
virulence. The technique has been practically the same as that 
employed by Burrows in the cultivation of the tissues of chick 
embryos and subsequently by Carrel and Burrows in the growth of 
various mammalian tissues; that is, plasma was obtained by 
centrifugalizing fresh blood under conditions that prevent co- 
agulation and allowing it to clot in hanging drops which contained 
small pieces of tumor tissue. These preparations were incubated 
at 37 0 C. We have found that rat sarcoma grows in both rat 
plasma and mouse plasma, and that this is also true of mouse 
sarcoma. The growth in both instances, however, seems to be 
more vigorous and of longer duration when homologous plasma is 
used. 
For the character of the growth in vitro, a description of the 
growth of mouse sarcoma in mouse plasma will suffice. The 
edges of a piece of sarcoma embedded in plasma are at first fairly 
uniform in thickness and the piece of tissue is dense and opaque. 
After twelve hours of incubation at 37 0 numerous elongated cells 
project from all sides of the tissue and these wander out into the 
surrounding plasma by amoeboid motion. The throwing out of 
pseudopods and the associated streaming of the protoplasm can 
be seen quite beautifully under the microscope. As the cells 
wander from the original piece of tissue, it becomes less dense and 
we have observed very frequently the reduction of the original 
piece of sarcoma tissue to only a fraction of its initial size. Indeed 
it may become after several days entirely resolved into its com- 
ponent cells, which wander further and further toward the peri- 
phery of the plasma. These migrating cells rapidly fill themselves 
iThis investigation has been conducted under the George Crocker Special Re- 
search Fund. 
