The weight of the pineal gland in malignancy

A series of 150 pineal glands removed at routine postmortems in a general hospital have been examined. Statistical analysis of the weights of 147 of these glands from patients aged between 45 and 90 years, shows that the glands from patients dying of malignant disease are significantly lighter than those where the cause of death was non-malignant. These results are almost the exact reverse of those described recently in a similar series in America.After decalcification very little difference in the weight of the gland can be detected between the two groups and it would appear that the higher weight of the glands from non-malignant patients is due, at least in part, to the presence of a greater amount of mineral in these glands.