Some Neglected Points in the Pathology of Breast Cancer; and Treatment of Breast Cancer1
The mammary gland is an appendage of the skin that no longer act as other sweat glands do, but secrete under a certain stimulus a fluid which contains casein, fat, and sugar.
Abstract
The mammary gland is an appendage of the skin. The milk ducts are hypertrophied and glorified sweat glands. A large number of such glands have their exit at the nipple. These glands have become so changed during embryological life that they no longer act as other sweat glands do, but secrete under a certain stimulus a fluid which contains casein, fat, and sugar. The specialized epithelial cells, which have the power to separate these chemical substances from the blood stream and discharge them into the lumen of the gland, have been transformed from ordinary epithelium into gland epithelium, and so, in the performance of their function, these cells must of necessity be in very close and intimate association with blood vessels. The epithelium lining the milk ducts is the most restless and changeable epithelium in the whole body. It is continually, from puberty, being stimulated to hypertrophy with the approach of the menstrual period, or is undergoing a retrogression, the stimulation of the menstrual period...