Spontaneous metastasis from primary C3H mouse mammary tumors.

The normal incidence of metastasis was determined in 207 C3H/He and 42 C3Hf/He mice with spontaneous mammary tumors. The effects of early versus delayed surgical removal of the tumors on the incidence of metastasis were studied in the C3H/He mice. The presence of metastases was determined by histological examination, primarily of the lungs. The incidence of metastasis was proportional to the size the primary tumors were allowed to reach before surgery, with the highest incidence in mice not surgically cured. Tumors that developed early in the life of the mice had the greater tendency to metastasize. Immunogenic and non-immunogenic tumors occurred with similar frequency among 16 metastasizing tumors tested. Primary tumors and their metastases were equally immunogenic. All of 95 metastasizing adenocarcinomas grew extensively within pulmonary vessels with no tendency for active extravasation. In contrast, each of six metastasizing mammary sarcomas extravasated actively and probably extravasated early because intravascular growth was never observed.