The micromorphology of a human bronchogenic carcinoma

APIDLY increasing amounts of information R on the intrinsic morphological organization of the cell, the recognition of its general plan and submicroscopic structure, and a certain knowledge of embryonic cells and the functional and degenerative alterations of cytoplasmic components establish some of the necessary background for the study of the submicroscopic characteristics of tumor cells.The question then arises of how well we can distinguish structural changes due to function of the normal cell from those changes that favor cell multiplication and that will alter intra-and intercellular correlations.Micromorphological investigations can most reasonably, at present, contribute to the necessary descriptive morphology of tumor cells and to data on alterations of structural components.It is hoped that the accumulation of micromorphological evidence will supply data for tumor recognition at the level of fine structural details, define dedifferentiation more precisely, and help to establish border lines between regenerative, hyperplastic, and inflammatory excesses of growth.Unfortunately, precise descriptions of the latter are still lacking, hence much of the information now collected on tumors can be evaluated only after an increase in knowledge in related fields.To the end of a more complete description of tumor structure, it is preferable to utilize those tumors readily available, of controllable age and growth, and with a cycle that can be followed not only from the surface to the interior of a nodule but also in various nodules in given stages during given generations.