Lymphoid tumours and leukaemia induced in mice by bone-seeking radionucleides

Single intraperitoneal doses of soluble 90Sr and monomeric 239Pu induced generalized lymphomatosis in laboratory mice. Leukaemogenesis due to soluble 226Ra was more uncertain. Clinical expression was variable, but as a generalization the disease was a lymphosarcoma with haematogenous (leukaemic) spread. Only rarely, unlike the commonly recorded forms of natural and X-ray-induced lymphosarcomas, was the thymus apparently the site of onset. The cell-type was lymphoblastic of undifferentiated null form (not T, not B). The average doses of alpha or beta radiation accumulated in the bone-marrow, the presumed site of induction, were at the time of diagnosis usually more than 2500 rad, but, if the cases occurring after radium or low activities of plutonium are accepted as induced, 300-1500 rad of alpha radiation. Mice converted to chimaeras only rarely exhibited any lymphoma, general or local. Abdominal lymphomas were not numerically increased by these radionucleides (perhaps due to shortening of life-span) though some may have been prematurely induced.