The pancreatic islets in chondrosarcoma. A qualitative and quantitative study in humans.

Pancreatic islets in 12 control and 15 chondrosarcoma cases have been studied both qualitatively and quantitatively. There was definite hypertrophy and hyperplasia of islets in the chondrosarcoma patients. The mean percent of large islets was 15% for the control group and 41% for chondrosarcoma patients. The latter had a greater number of cells per islet and a greater number of alpha cells as well as beta cells than the control series; this result might of course be merely a reflection of the increased islet tissue mass in chondrosarcoma patients.