OVERVIEW 
The Registry of Tumors in Lower Animals (RTLA) facilitates 
the study of neoplasms and related disorders in invertebrate and 
poikilothermic vertebrate animals by serving as a specimen deposi¬ 
tory, a diagnostic center, an information center and a research 
group. 
Among new accessions, were two amine precursor uptake and 
decarboxylase (APUD) neoplasms: a carcinoid tumor from the hindgut 
of an indigo snake (RTLA 2335; M. D. Lagios) and a chemodectoma in 
a gaboon viper (RTLA 2317; A. Heldstab). The central nervous sys¬ 
tem was represented by an induced meningotheliomatous meningioma in 
a brook trout (RTLA 2361; L. Crutcher). 
Other neoplasms of neural crest origin included a neurilemmal 
sarcoma in a brook trout (RTLA 2224; J. E. Carlisle) and neurilemmoma 
in a goldfish (RTLA 2244; H. Wolf), in a dab (RTLA 2259; D. Bucke) 
and three lesions in a schoolmaster (RTLA 2289; W. Kandrashoff), 
The schoolmaster also had a fourth histopathologically similar le¬ 
sion which contained reflective platelets, presumably of guanine, 
and was diagnosed as an iridophoroma. Pigment cell tumors also in¬ 
cluded an invasive chromatophoroma in a rainbow boa (RTLA 2249; J. 
P. Sundberg), melanophoric neurilemmoma in two croaker species and 
a grunt (RTLA 2297-9; L. T. Findley and A. J. Mearns), an Invasive 
melanophoroma in a southern platyfish (RTLA 2358; N. Herwig) and an 
Iridophoroma in a largemouth bass (RTLA 2349; C. E. Smith). Re¬ 
cently, J. Matsumoto, T. Ishikawa, Prince Masahito and S. Takayama 
reported in the Proceedings of The Eleventh International S 3 nnposium 
of The Princess Takamatsu Cancer Research Fund: Phyletic Approaches 
to Cancer (Nov. 1981 publication expected) that individual cells 
from goldfish and sciaenid fish pigment cell tumors cultured in 
vitro simultaneously contained organelles for producing more than 
one pigment and recommended designating multipigmented neoplasms 
as chromatobiastoma. Based on this work, on observations of 
neoplasms resembling pigmented neurilemmoma (e.g., the school¬ 
master, croaker and grunt already mentioned), and one reported ab¬ 
sence of the characteristic Schwann cell basement membrane in 
goldfish neurilemmoma, perhaps fish neoplasms commonly diagnosed 
as "neurilemmoma" on morphologic grounds actually originate from 
a neural crest stem cell precursor of the chromatoblast. 
Connective tissue neoplasms included a lepidocytoma (scale¬ 
forming fibroma) in the skin of an Atlantic salmon (RTLA 2260; D. 
Bucke), a subcutaneous myxoma in an ide (RTLA 2277; S. Bogovskl), 
a subcutaneous fibroma in a brook trout (RTLA 2302; A. George), a 
subcutaneous fibrosarcoma in a coho salmon (RTLA 2333; J. Hnath), 
a cardiac fibrosarcoma in a water monitor lizard (RTLA 2347; P. 
Zwart) and a lipoma in an Atlantic bonlto (RTLA 2359; W. Kandrashoff) 
and a diamondback water snake (RTLA 2338; R. Lawson). 
