Macroautoradiography with radiophosphorus in cancer of the stomach.

Metabolism is increased in malignant tissue which, therefore, accumulates a larger amount of 32p than the healthy tissue of the same organ (Selverstone, Solomon, and Sweet, 1949). The increased activity in tumour cells is mainly due to the activity of 32p bound metabolically to nucleic acids (Shahon, Aust, and Root, 1957; Tuttle, Erf, and Lawrence, 1941). It is thus understandable that after a single dose of 32p more radioactivity can be found in the cells of malignant tissue than in those of healthy tissue. These properties were demonstrated in animal experiments and by measuring the radioactivity of various organs in healthy subjects and patients (Jones, Chaikoff, and Lawrence, 1940; Kenney, Marinelli, and Woodard, 1941; Kelsey, 1951; Selverstone et al., 1949; Solopaeva, 1959), and have been used clinically in the diagnosis of cancer of the breast (Low-Beer, 1946; Low-Beer, Bell, McCorkle, and Stone, 1946), brain (Selverstone et al., 1949), and eye (Thomas, Harrington, and Bovington, 1958). Our team has been working for a number of years on various aspects of precancerous conditions of the stomach (Gregor and Hanik, 1962; Gregor, getka, Bednamf, and Jirasek, 1960; Gregor, Volek, and Voslafova, 1960; Gregor, Bednaf, Jirasek, Voslafova', and Hanik, 1962; Gregor, 1962; Gregor, Bednaf, Pavlovski, Vosl'aova', and Jirasek, 1962; Gregor, 1965; Hanik, and Gregor, 1962; Holy' and Gregor, 1959; Volek and Gregor, 1960; Volek and Gregor, 1963) but in order to find out whether 32p could be used in the early diagnosis of these precancerous conditions of the stomach it was necessary first to verify data in the literature (Ackerman and Spratt, 1963; Ackerman, McFee, Santoro, and Wangensteen, 1961; Schulman, Falkenheim, and Gray, 1949; Nakayama, 1956a; Nakayama, 1956b; Shahon et al., 1957; Shifrin 1958) on the reliability of the method in already developed cancer of the stomach. Apart from the clinical picture, the routine methods of investigating cancer of the stomach are mainly morphological, whether radiology, gastroscopy, cytology, or operation and histological examination, are being considered. We were therefore interested whether a metabolic-biochemical approach to the problem of using 32p would be practicable. This work was thus an attempt to find the answer to two questions. 1, Whether the maximum concentration of 32p in malignant tissue also corresponds to the morphological criteria of malignant growth, and 2, whether radioactive phosphorus can be used in the differential diagnosis of cancer of the stomach.