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Transfer of the Agent for Mammary Cancer in Mice by the Male^*

( Division of Cancer Biology, Department of Physiology, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis 14, Minn.)

Experimental data have been presented on the transmission by males of cancer stocks of the agent, usually transferred in the milk, for spontaneous mammary cancer in mice.

The infected females may become cancerous or remain noncancerous, but they transfer the agent in their milk to their progeny.

The offspring born to females before they become infected have a low incidence of mammary cancer, but after the mothers become infected their progeny have a high incidence.

The agent may be recovered, as demonstrated by biological assay, from the mammary tumors that develop in either the infected females or their progeny.

Females of strains without the agent differ in their sensitivity to infection by males.

Males of cancerous strains vary in their ability to infect females of either the same or other stocks.

Based upon small numbers, 59 per cent of the females of one inbred strain may develop mammary cancer following infection with the agent by males, while others may become infected but die noncancerous.

Other observations are cited where the agent "appeared" in the progeny born of parents neither of which possessed the agent.

These data are discussed in relation to the interpretation of material obtained to determine whether there may be a nursing influence involved in the genesis of breast cancer in humans.

^* Assisted by grants from the American Cancer Society upon recommendation by the Committee on Growth of the National Research Council; the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Public Health Service; and the Graduate School Cancer Research Fund of the University of Minnesota.

Received 9/ 6/51.