Abstract
This analysis is concerned with the possible effect on the distribution of metastases of successive transplants of the Brown-Pearce tumor at monthly intervals for more than 15 years into a variety of rabbits. The data are derived from 2 series of rabbits. The first series of 191 young adult male rabbits of common mongrel type was reported by Pearce and Brown in 1923, shortly after discovery of the tumor 1 The second series of 202 young adult male rabbits from 19 standard breeds was reported by the author in 1938. 2 The animals in both series) received a single intratesticular injection of 0.3 to 0.5 cc of a saline emulsion of rabbit tumor tissue. In the first series 111 and in the second series 137 animals presented gross metastases at necropsy. The postmortem technic was the same in both series, but there were slight differences in the particular muscles, bones, and distant nodes selected for examination.
The distribution of metastases in the first and second series is presented in Table I for those sites in the body concerning which comparable data are available. The data for regional and distant metastases are segregated. Both the actual and the expected values are presented.
Neither by local extension nor hematogenous spread was there a significant variation between the actual and the expected values for the distribution of metastases. There was some evidence, furthermore, that the experimental error in the 2 series was unusually small (chi-square = 8.53, n = 17, P = 0.95). The seemingly low experimental error in the observations is borne out by the coefficient of correlation between the 2 series of + 0.9828 (n = 16, P = 0.001-), a very high and significant value.
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