Enistehung und Früherfassung des Portiokarzinoms: Weitere Erfahrungen mit der systematischen Kolposkopie an der Zürcher Frauenklinik, zugleich ein Beitrag zur Frage der Krebsentstehung

Wespi has made a study by conventional histologic methods of the epithelium of the uterine cervix with special reference to cell types which may be considered precancerous. He concludes that adult, fully differentiated epithelium does not give rise to neoplastic cells, but rather that the change antecedent to cancer is in the germinal layer. Evidence is advanced that atypical cells, indistinguishable from precancerous ones, are associated with injury, inflammation and endocrine imbalance, although quantitative measurements of the imbalance are not specified. Emphasis is given to the long period of latency which may exist before a precancerous area develops the power of unrestrained growth. This is, of course, quite in accord with the observation of other groups. The author makes special reference to the multicentric origin of cancer of the cervix. He advances the theory that multiple origin is evidence against the origin of cancer by the mutation of normal cells