Stephen Paget
Encyclopedia
Stephen Paget was an English
surgeon
, the son of the distinguished surgeon and pathologist
Sir James Paget. Stephen Paget has been long credited with proposing the "seed and soil" theory of metastasis
, even though in his paper “The Distribution Of Secondary Growths In Cancer Of The Breast”, The Lancet, Volume 133, Issue 3421, 23 March 1889, Pages 571-573, he clearly states “…the chief advocate of this theory of the relation between the embolus and the tissues which receive it is Fuchs…”. The paper by Fuchs is “Das Sarkom des Uvealtractus”, Wien, 1882. Graefe's Archiv für Ophthalmologie, XII, 2, p. 233. In his paper, Paget presents and analyzes 735 fatal cases of breast cancer, complete with autopsy, as well as many other cancer cases from the literature and argues that the distribution of metastases cannot be due to chance, concluding that although “the best work in pathology of cancer is done by those who… are studying the nature of the seed…” [the cancer cell], the “observations of the properties of the soil" [the secondary organ] "may also be useful”...
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
surgeon
Surgery
Surgery is an ancient medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, or to help improve bodily function or appearance.An act of performing surgery may be called a surgical...
, the son of the distinguished surgeon and pathologist
Pathology
Pathology is the precise study and diagnosis of disease. The word pathology is from Ancient Greek , pathos, "feeling, suffering"; and , -logia, "the study of". Pathologization, to pathologize, refers to the process of defining a condition or behavior as pathological, e.g. pathological gambling....
Sir James Paget. Stephen Paget has been long credited with proposing the "seed and soil" theory of metastasis
Metastasis
Metastasis, or metastatic disease , is the spread of a disease from one organ or part to another non-adjacent organ or part. It was previously thought that only malignant tumor cells and infections have the capacity to metastasize; however, this is being reconsidered due to new research...
, even though in his paper “The Distribution Of Secondary Growths In Cancer Of The Breast”, The Lancet, Volume 133, Issue 3421, 23 March 1889, Pages 571-573, he clearly states “…the chief advocate of this theory of the relation between the embolus and the tissues which receive it is Fuchs…”. The paper by Fuchs is “Das Sarkom des Uvealtractus”, Wien, 1882. Graefe's Archiv für Ophthalmologie, XII, 2, p. 233. In his paper, Paget presents and analyzes 735 fatal cases of breast cancer, complete with autopsy, as well as many other cancer cases from the literature and argues that the distribution of metastases cannot be due to chance, concluding that although “the best work in pathology of cancer is done by those who… are studying the nature of the seed…” [the cancer cell], the “observations of the properties of the soil" [the secondary organ] "may also be useful”...