The incidence of splenic metastasis of carcinoma.

The incidence of metastases to the spleen observed at autopsy in a series of 1,000 consecutive cases of malignant neoplasms of epithelial origin was 9 per cent; in a group of 104 cases of malignant neoplasms of non-epithelial origin, the spleen was involved in 45 per cent. These data do not support the contention that metastasis to the spleen is rare, or that the spleen possesses anti-neoplastic properties.