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All the malignant soft tissue tumours in the extremities and limb girdles reported to the Finnish Cancer Registry between 1960–1969 were reviewed. From a total of 246 sarcomas, 38 were diagnosed as malignant fibrous histiocytoma. There was an equal number of male and female patients with the median age of 67 years. The thigh was the most frequent site, and the majority of the tumours originated in the deep soft tissues. The predominant treatment was excision followed by radiation therapy. In 17 patients there were one or more recurrences and in 21 patients there was a metastatic spread ascertained by biopsy, autopsy or clinical or radiographic evidence. There were 11 survivors with a minimum of 5 years' follow-up; seven patients died of an intercurrent disease and the remaining 20 patients were considered victims of their tumour. The findings that seemed to favour a poor prognosis were higher age and female sex of the patient as well as deep location, large size, necrotic areas, and high mitotic activity of the tumour.

We report a case of a glomus tumor in the trachea which was an incidental finding in a 66-year-old man. The histological picture and immunohistochemical profile were typical for this tumor. The glomus tumor is an exceedingly rare mass lesion in the trachea, but it is useful to keep it among differential diagnostic alternatives when a tracheal tumor is seen on radiographs or endoscopy.

In a survey of all malignant soft tissue tumors in the extremities and limb girdles in Finland between 1960 and 1969, only one alveolar soft part sarcoma was found among 246 tumors (0.4%). Another alveolar soft part sarcoma, diagnosed in 1976, was more thoroughly studied. There was evidence that the characteristic crystals of alveolar soft part sarcoma are formed from the dense granules. Both were PASM-positive at ultrastructural level. No monoamines were detected in the cells by formaldehyde-induced fluorescence. This is a further fact to nullify the theory of the paraganglionic origin of alveolar soft part sarcoma, but the question of the histogenesis of the tumor still remains open.

The localization of trypsin-like esteropeptidases purified from the submandibular gland of the male mouse was studied with the indirect immunofluorescent method. The six esteropeptidases isolated previously were found to be antigenically closely related to each other and were located in the granular ducts of the gland. None of the enzymes was present in the sublingual gland.

The vascular permeability increasing effect of several trypsin-like enzymes purified from the rat submandibular gland was studied. The size of the lesion caused by an intradermal injection of small amounts of the enzymes in blued rabbits was used as the measure of the permeability increasing effect. Salivain and four isozymic forms of a kallikrein-like peptidase caused a very marked increase in the vascular permeability. A clearly weaker response was obtained with glandulain and Depot-Padutin®, and a very weak response with trypsin. These lesions as well as that caused by bradykinin could not be prevented by prometazine, as was the lesion caused by histamine. The response to the enzymes was lowered to about one half by prior injections of phenylbutazone. It was concluded that the enzymes effect the vascular permeability by liberating vasoactive kinins.