The arterial wall in malignant disease.

The intimal thickening of arteries present in 95 resected specimens of carcinoma of the colon was studied, using sections from the tumour area and from adjacent normal bowel. Arteries from the tumour area showed a very significant increase in intimal thickening as compared with the controls. It is suggested that the local factor associated with the tumour area is an impaired drainage of macromolecules from the intimal compartment of the arteries due to obstruction of the lymphatic channels of the surrounding interstitial tissue by tumour cells and fibrosis.