Cancer cells in the circulating blood, with reference to cancer metastasis.

The author discusses the relation between the presence of cancer cells in the circulating blood and the development of metastasis, as demonstrated by studies on animals with experimentally induced tumours, by post-mortem studies on fatal human cases of cancer, and by studies on patients operated upon for stomach cancer. Although the correlation between the presence of tumour cells in the blood and the occurrence of metastatic lesions was found to be less close in the human cases of cancer than in the experimental animals, the author considers that it was sufficiently marked to justify the assumption that the appearance of tumour cells in the circulating blood is an important link in the chain of processes leading to cancer metastasis. In conclusion, the author puts forward the suggestion, based on the results of animal experiments, that chemotherapy might have an inhibitory effect on the liberated tumour cells in the blood, particularly if these cells are present only in small numbers, and thus be instrumental in halting the course of metastasis.