The influence of certain carcinogenic and other hydrocarbons on body growth in the rat

Abstract In the course of work on the mode of action of tumour-producing agents it was found that certain of the carcinogenic hydrocarbons studied at the Research Institute of the Royal Cancer Hospital (Cook and others 1932; Cook 1932; Barry and others 1935) possessed growth-inhibiting properties (Haddow 1935; Haddow and Robinson 1937). This was demonstrated by recording the effect of these substances, administered by intraperitoneal injection, on the behaviour of transplantable tumours growing subcutaneously in the rat. During these experiments it was observed that treated animals appeared to grow less rapidly as compared with their controls. Because of this it was felt that the reduction in tumour growth rate was probably not a tumour-specific effect but rather the result of an inhibition of growth affecting the body as a whole. Hence further experiments were carried out to determine the action of these and other substances on the body growth of rats.