Researches Into the Etiology of Carcinoma: On the Presence of Plasmodiophoræ in Carcinomatous Tumours and the Successful Culture of the Parasites.

Abstract

network of connective tissue with a round-celled exudation and a few tubercles with giant cells. A few blood-vessels were present in the outer part of the wall. Judging from the thickness and density of the abscess wall it must have been present for a considerable time, probably starting about the onset of the otorrhcea. Striking features in the case were the toughness of the wall of the abscess, as even after it was removed considerable force was necessary before a needle could be made to penetrate it, and also the absence of symptoms referable to the abscess, notwithstanding that the temporo-sphenoidal lobe in which it was situated was destroyed to a very considerable extent. The clinical aspect pointed more to a meningeal infection. Glasgow.

Henry Wade (1876–1955), pioneer of urological surgery, museum conservator and war veteran

“…He and WFR believed they could see microbes resembling Plasmodiaphora brassicae , but much smaller, in tissues from certain cancers. Their premature results 27 evoked serious criticism. 28 However, in work of his own on the transmissibility of experimental cancers, Wade still proposed that some were caused by infective agents, studies described in his 1907 MD thesis.…”

Henry Wade (1876–1955): an early 20th century cancer researcher and pioneer urologist

“…In a first report, made to the 1904 Oxford meeting of the British Medical Association, they redefined the microscopic appearances of Pl. brassicae , a process necessary if different stages of the organism were to be identified in human tissue [5]. During the Pathological Museum section of the meeting, they exhibited specimens from their work [6].…”

“…Using their unique culture methods, they also succeeded in growing an organism with the characteristics of Pl. brassicae from three human carcinomas [7]. However, doubts about their research began to emerge, forcing the authors to admit that ‘the methods used for the study of Plasmodiophorae are not specific’, and that ‘it would be impossible to derive any conclusive evidence in support of, or against, their presence from the histological part of our investigations.’[1] Undaunted, Ford Robertson and Wade studied four more tumours and found several successive phases of the parasite.…”