SPLENIC metastases are infrequent clinically and in experimental animals.1,2 Some investigators have attributed this to the "poor soil" of this organ1; others to a fibrosing process.3 The peculiarities of the vascular system of the spleen may also account for the infrequency of metastases.2 It has been shown in hamsters that lymphosarcoma cells lodge in the spleen, but that cells from carcinoma do not Iodge.4 Tumor cells have been demonstrated in the spleen of mice but only when the peritoneum was the source of the tumor or could have been contaminated by extension of the tumor.5
In a previous study in our laboratory, a homogenate of individual organs removed four hours after the systemic inoculation of Walker 256 cancer cells was injected subcutaneously into new recipient animals. "Takes" were obtained with lung homogenate in 100% of the animals, kidney 90%, liver 80%, heart 50%,