Spontaneous colon cancer and its spontaneous regression in highly inbred Wistar Furth rats: genetic analysis

The incidence of spontaneously occurring colon cancer and its spontaneous regression in the highly inbred Wistar Furth (WF) rat was studied using 1346 rats from the 19th to the 21st inbreeding generation. A statistical analysis revealed a positive phenotypical correlation between parents and offspring concerning the incidence of colon cancer and its spontaneous regression. The incidences of cancer-bearing offspring born from the crosses of cancer-free dams and cancer-bearing, spontaneous regression and cancer-free sires were 21%, 14.1% and 22.7%, respectively, and these results manifested a statistically significant difference. The incidences of spontaneous regression in the male offspring born from the same crosses mentioned above were 35%, 46.8% and 23.5%, respectively; they also represented a significant difference. Based on the analysis, two independent genetic factors, one carcinogenic and the another regressive, were suggested to determine the phenotypes of offspring. The cancer-bearing offspring have the carcinogenic factor but not the regressive factor, while the spontaneous regression ones have both factors. The frequencies of the carcinogenic and the regressive factors in male rats were estimated to be 54.1% and 59.8%, respectively, on average from the 19th to the 21st generation. A genetic pool of the carcinogenic and the regressive factors was established in the WF rat.