Concerning the origin of malignant tumours by Theodor Boveri. Translated and annotated by Henry Harris

T Boveri - Journal of cell science, 2008 - journals.biologists.com
T Boveri
Journal of cell science, 2008journals.biologists.com
In the year 1902, I tacked onto the results of my experiments on the development of doubly
fertilised sea urchin eggs the speculation that malignant tumours might be the consequence
of a certain abnormal chromosome constitution, which in some circumstances can be
generated by multipolar mitoses (Boveri, 1902). I had intended, even at that time, to put that
assumption on a firmer footing in a separate article. But the scepticism with which my ideas
were met when I discussed them with investigators who act as judges in this area induced …
In the year 1902, I tacked onto the results of my experiments on the development of doubly fertilised sea urchin eggs the speculation that malignant tumours might be the consequence of a certain abnormal chromosome constitution, which in some circumstances can be generated by multipolar mitoses (Boveri, 1902). I had intended, even at that time, to put that assumption on a firmer footing in a separate article. But the scepticism with which my ideas were met when I discussed them with investigators who act as judges in this area induced me to abandon the project. I had to admit that a hypothesis in this field can be of value only if it leads to targeted new research and, above all, to new experimental investigations. And who ought it to be to decide to undertake such investigations if not the originator of the hypothesis himself? So, for some time now, I have carried out experiments that seemed to me to be relevant, admittedly without success so far, but my convictions on this score have nonetheless not been shattered.
It was the appearance of an article by O. Aichel (Aichel, 1911) that first prompted me to take the decision to communicate the hypothesis, and the evidence that supported it, in greater detail, even though I had essentially nothing more to offer than I had done ten years previously. To explain the origin of tumours, Aichel's article relies on facts that I had established in sea urchins and that gave rise to my own conception of tumours. But the hypothesis that multipolar mitoses might generate tumours is amalgamated by Aichel with his own view, published earlier, that the initial event in the generation of a malignant tumour is the fusion of a tissue cell with a leucocyte (1). This notion casts the key elements of the hypothesis for which I am responsible in an essentially different light, so much so that it has become a matter of importance to me, now that my views have again become the subject of discussion, to set them out in their original form for readers familiar with the subject. But, in the end, I had another motive. The idea that there might be a connection between abnormal mitoses and malignant tumours has certainly cropped up often enough, but it has always been rejected, indeed so completely that in the recent literature it is curtly dismissed, if mentioned at all. The arguments that contradict the idea are easy to see. But one can nonetheless ask whether these objections are merely apparent and whether the more complete information that we now have about these chromosomal abnormalities might warrant, indeed necessitate, a reassessment of their connection with malignant tumours. What follows might serve as a stimulus to that end.
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