The Electric Capacity of Tumors of the Breast

INTRODUCTION A suspension of biological cells or a biological tissue when placed in a conductivity cell, behaves as though it were a pure resistance in parallel with a pure capacity. This parallel capacity is the capacity of the specimen of tissue which is measured while the specific capacity is the capacity of a one centimeter cube of the tissue. While the resistance of biological tissues has been studied by many investigators, little attention has been directed to their capacity. During the course of an investigation of the capacities of various biological systems, which is at present in progress in this laboratory, certain facts regarding the capacity of tumors were noted which justified a somewhat extensive study of the practical aspects of this subject. In short, it was found that certain types of malignant tumors have a rather high capacity in comparison with benign tumors or with inactive tissues of the same or similar character. Early in the investigation it was determined that tumors of the breast constituted the most convenient and uncomplicated material for study and while numerous tumors of other tissues have been measured, only those belonging to this group will be reported here. Fifty-eight cases have been admitted to this series, which constitutes an unselected group comprising all the cases of tumors of the breast which have been operated on at the Cleveland Clinic Hospital for a period of about one year, together with sporadic cases taken at random prior to this time and a few cases, particularly of benign tumors, which were operated on at other hospitals in the city. 2