Visceral involvement in primary neoplastic diseases of the reticulo-endothelial system

HE VISCI~RAL MANIFESTATIONS of the malig-T nant lymphomas and allied diseases are of clinical importance, since SIGNIFICANT visceral involvement occurs in almost all subjects afflicted with these diseases and CRITICAL visceral involvement is found in approximately 20 per cent of them.The data to be presented consist of 123 cases of neoplasms of the reticuloendotlielial system verified by autopsy at the University of California Hospital between the years 1935 and 1948.In each instance the tissue sections were classified in accordance with the specific histological criteria given here and correlations were made between the clinical diagnoses and the pathological evidences of visceral involvement.All cases in which classification was doubtful were excluded.It is evident that awareness of visceral involvement dates from the earliest descriptions of the various diseases included in the group.