ABSTRACT
This monograph summarizes 5 years of animal experimentation using syngeneic groups of mice, exploring the relationship between transplanted murine breast cancers and ‘the host’. Ingenious experimental models were set up to study the putative role of the regional lymph nodes (RLN) in filtering out cancer cells from the afferent lymph and the role of the RLN in inducing an immune response to a subsequent challenge with the same tumor. These experiments demonstrated that the RLN do not have a filtration capacity and that cancer cells could bypass the nodes by lymphovenous channels or by direct invasion of the venous system. Furthermore, the surgical removal of the RLN inhibited the induction and maintenance of an immune response capable of the recognition and rejection of a subsequent challenge with the same tumor.
