Metastases in carcinoma.Analysis of 1000 autopsied cases

Abstract

NE of the most striking and disheartening qualities of cancer is the relentlessness of its spread throughout the organism. At the Montefiore Hospital for Chronic Diseases, the observation was made that widespread metastases were present in a higher percentage of the cases that reached the autopsy table than the literature would lead one to believe. Such organs as spleen, ureter, heart-usually considered rare sites of secondary carcinomaappeared to have been involved not uncommonly. Because there have been few recent comprehensive studies of the metastases of carcinoma, it was thought that a study of the metastases of one-thousand consecutive autopsied cases of carcinoma would be of value.