Presence of a Carcinogenic Substance in Hens’Eggs

Abstract

Summary

Sixteen “A'”strain mice were maintained, from the age of 3 months, on a Rockland rat diet supplemented with hard boiled eggs, one or 2 daily. Sixteen other mice, from the same litters as the above, were kept as controls. They were maintained on the same Rockland rat diet, but without eggs. Of the latter group only 2 animals developed tumors, which were in the lungs, one at 20 and the other at 25 months of age. Of the 16 experimental mice, 12 developed malignant tumors. In 6 of them the tumors in each animal were limited to a single organ, while of the other 6 mice, which died at the age of 22 to 25 months, some had 2, others 3 and one had 4 primary malignancies. Adenocarcinoma of the lung was the most frequent malignancy. It was found in 10 of the experimental animals. Next in frequency were ovarian tumors, leukemias, mammary gland adenocarcinomas, an osteosarcoma and an adrenal gland adenocarcinoma. In many of these animals distant metastases were found. In the experimental females the ovaries underwent radical changes. Four of them became cancerous. In none of the males, however, could any damage be found in the testes. It is too early to draw definitive conclusions, but there seems to be no doubt that eggs contain a substance or substances that stimulates both normal and abnormal growth.