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Whole-Body Radiation as a Carcinogenic Agent^*

( Institute of Pathology, Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, Ohio)

A series of rats which survived a single dose of 660 r of whole-body radiation had an unusually high incidence of neoplasms. The animals developed a wide variety of tumors, both benign and malignant, especially in skin and subcutaneous tissue, but also in viscera.

Both the frequency of neoplasms and the number of tumors per rat increased with duration of life. Individual rats often showed multiple diverse types of neoplasms.

Of the 69 tumor-bearing animals, 43 had one or more malignant neoplasms. There were fourteen rats with fibrosarcoma, eight with carcinoma of the skin, eight with carcinoma of the kidney, five with osteogenic sarcoma, and five with neuroblastoma. Such tumors are apparently quite uncommon or rare as spontaneous lesions, especially in the Wistar strain.

This study demonstrates the carcinogenic potency of whole-body radiation. In addition to direct tissue injury, an indirect or systemic mechanism induced by radiation may have been operative in promoting carcinogenesis.

^* Work performed under contract between the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and Western Reserve University.

Presented at the annual meeting of the American Association of Pathologists and Bacteriologists, April, 1953. Abstractin Am. J. Path., 29:606, 1953.

Received 9/ 8/54.