New Environmental Factor in Congenital Disease

Abstract

This issue contains an original communication (Herbst, Ulfelder and Poskanzer) of great scientific importance and serious social implications. The highly significant correlation between the appearance of adenocarcinoma of the vagina in teen-age girls and young women, a very rare disease, and the ingestion of diethylstilbestrol by their mothers during the first trimester of pregnancy points to a new mechanism in the pathogenesis of congenital neoplastic disease and adds a new dimension to the whole matter of what drugs are safe or unsafe to administer to pregnant women. The first indication of the existence of this effect was reported a year . . .