[Repi'inted from the Journal of Cutaneous and Genito-Urinary Diseases for April, 1895.] 
A CASE OF CANCER OF THE URETHRA.* 
By EUGENE FULLER, M. D., 
New York. 
THE specimen, which is one of villous cancer originating in the 
urethral mucous membrane, was taken from an old man whose 
death was hastened if not directly caused by retention of urine 
due to the plugging of the canal by the growth. 
Fig. 1 represents a side view of the distal portion of the organ. 
Fig. 2 represents the internal appearance of the growth, an incision 
having been made from the meatus along the frsenutn and floor of the 
urethra, which allowed the sides of the organ to be spread apart, thus 
exposing the urethra. In the glans penis there are four sinuses con- 
necting with the urethra. Three of these can be seen in Fig. 1; the 
fourth is on the right side of the glans, and consequently does not ap- 
pear in the photograph. All these sinuses are largely filled with the 
growth. The one, however, just above the meatus and the meatus 
itself are so corked by the villous mass as to be water-tight. In study- 
ing this specimen, the early history of which is unfortunately some- 
what meager it is evident that the growth first of all filled up the fossa 
* Presented before the February, 1894, Meeting of the Section on Genito-Urinary Surgery, 
New York Academy of Medicine. 
COPYRIGHT, 1895, BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. 2 
Okiginal Communications. 
navicularis, thus shutting off the urine from its natural vent, the 
meatus. At the same time the soft cancer destroyed the firm urethral 
tissues, thus allowing the pent-up urine to infiltrate and finally to dis- 
charge itself from a sinus which in turn was itself choked up by the 
encroaching growth, only to be replaced by another, a little farther 
Fig. 1. 
removed from tlie center of infection, and so on, until at length the in- 
dividual in question died, as has been described. 
Dr. Fordyce, who has also kindly photographed this interesting 
specimen, will append the result of his microscopical investigation. 
Microscopic Examination.—This extremely interesting specimen 
of cancer of the penis had been so badly preserved in alcohol that it 
was impossible to obtain very satisfactory sections for microscopic pur- 
poses. The neM’ growth was soft and friable, and took the stains im- 
perfectly or not at all. Cancers of the urethra are so rarely met with 
that they are well worthy of a careful study, and it is to be regretted 
that a more detailed examination could not be made in the case. The 
new growth was, however, an epithelioma, as shown by the presence 
of numerous epithelial cell nests inclosed within proliferating processes 
of epithelial tissue which filled up the fistulous tracts communicating 
with the urethra and composed the papillary outgrowths from the 
urethral mucous membrane. A Case of Cancer of the Urethra. 
3 
It could not be determined from the material at hand whether the 
cancer was primary in the urethra or whether it had extended from a 
growth within the bladder. In the cases of epitheliomata of the 
Fig. 2. 
urethra quoted by Sutton (Tumors, Innocent and Malignant, 1893), 
from Griffiths, Beck, and Witserhansen, the new growths started in 
the perineal urethra and led tin ally to urinary obstruction and fistulae. 
The tumors were grayish white in color and extremely brittle.