CONCERNING ADENOMATA ORIGINATING FROM THE ISLANDS OF LANGERHANS

Small encapsulated tumors of the size of peas, or even smaller, are occasionally found in the pancreas. These tumors are benign, and have a structure similar in all respects to that of an hypertrophied island of Langerhans. The distinctions between adenomata and forms of regenerative hypertrophy, sometimes so difficult to make in the breast, prostate, liver, and other organs, is not easily drawn in the present case. The fact that one may encounter all gradations in the size of islands, from that of the normal island to that of the tumors, suggests that it is more reasonable to consider such tumors merely as hypertrophied islands rather than as adenomata originating from islands.