No, doctors did not discover a new organ

On March 27th, 2018, a study in the peer-reviewed journal Scientific Reports (which is linked to Nature) titled “Structure and Distribution of an Unrecognized Interstitium in Human Tissues” was published. However, you more than likely heard “Scientists say they discovered a ‘new organ’ in the body”.

What the authors of the paper are actually saying is that they think there needs to be a “novel expansion and specification of the concept of the human interstitium”. Basically, a system that we already knew was there should be reclassified. The paper does not say that the system should definitively be reclassified as an organ. What it does say is that researchers were able to discover new aspects of the interstitium that were previously unobserved because the interstitium has only ever been studied in fixed slides (not while it was present in living tissue)

But this doesn’t stop the Chicago Tribune from stating “The human body is full of surprises. The latest: A newly identified “organ” that might affect major diseases.”, or Fox News from printing “Scientists Say They’ve Discovered a New Organ That Might Explain How Cancer Spreads”.

I don’t want to come down too hard on these news reports because, ultimately, I think its great that we’re engaging as many people as possible about science and medicine. And if you read the…