On the endocrine pathogenesis of malignant neoplasms

The teaching of tumors, especially malignant ones, most clearly reflects the evolutionary phases in biological medicine. The doctrine of hormones brings it back to the path of the humoral theory, and the further growth of hormonology links it closely to the cellular hypothesis. Thus, for example, Zondek and his school explain the interaction between cell and hormone by the cell's electrolytes or the content of ions in it, namely, by the distribution of electrolytes within the cell and on its membranes; on this, according to Zondek, depends the variability of the incretin action proceeding in the periphery of the body, although each cell is the carrier of specific hormones received by it through blood or lymph. Hence, says Zondek, a variety of moments can change the structure of a tissue and with it its ability to respond to hormones, and the hereditary factors which determine the structure of the tissue (genotypic mode of response, Bauer) are of enormous importance for the clinical picture of the symptoms.