ELASTOSIS AND CANCER

Recently we have shown that the autofluorescence within or just outsid e of a malignant tumor is rather small or large resp. in comparison to healthy tissue when excited at 365 nm. Studies with unfixed, unstaine d cryosections of skin with melanomas have revealed bulky fiber-like s tructures with a high fluorescence intensity just outside of a maligna nt tumor. Using polarized light, the structures could be identified as elastic fibers. This was also confirmed by studies on arterial walls.