Nature’s intrinsic “Erythrocyte Associated Necrosis Factor” (EANF) explains the anomalous lack of metastases in “bulky” lung cancers

Abstract

Under Professor D. F. Cappell, I went through the Scottish Pathology Residency Program in the University Department of Pathology which was housed in the Glasgow Western Infirmary. Incidentally, that Institution was acknowledged recently in the Bulletin of the History of Medicine as being second to none in Britain.1 Therein, I soon realized that the usual displaying of human parts on the Table was not sufficient for recognizing topographical relationships. Instead, I introduced the “Mono-Block FormalinFixation Method,” whose advantage was the precious preservation of the axial tissues from the neck to the pelvis.2 See Figure 1. Moreover, on account of serendipity, I used the Swiss-roll method to ensure that the difficult 45 cm long thoracic duct was easily prepared routinely and stained on but a single microscope slide.3 The revealed amazing panorama was strikingly that of lung cancer cells being carried more or less leisurely at the moment of death along this obviously strategic avenue. See Figure 2. In particular, I observed that, when cancer cells and red cells became commingled, necrosis occurred in this auspicious microenvironment. Accordingly, I named this extraordinary killing entity as the “Erythrocyte Associated Necrosis Factor” (EANF).4 It may be charged that it is not Necrosis per se but “coagulation.” If so, only red cells would have been seen. Moreover, if it is “inflammation,” white corpuscles alone would be involved. The thrust on EANF is on the oddity of comingling of cancer cells and red cells. Accepting this hypothesis concerning this poignant program of enduring natural events, its decoding has become necessary. Figure 1 Specimen of mono-block formalin-fixed bodily tissues extending from above the thyroid gland to beyond the aortic bifurcation.