Scanning electron microscopy of cells in the lymph of the human thoracic duct in advanced malignancies.

At scanning electron microscopy of cells from the lymph of the thoracic duct, collected by cannulation of patients with malignant tumours of different types, lymphocytes and red blood cells were found, but few malignant cells. The latter came from patients with pulmonary carcinoma and mammary carcinoma with lung metastases. Various abnormal shapes of the red blood cells were observed, possibly due to extrinsic factors such as administered drugs of abnormal metabolites from the malignant disease. The lymphocytes had no consistent pathologic shape, but appeared to act as immunologic, active cells against the malignant cells in the thoracic lymph.