Bone sarcomas in 239Pu-treated mice.

Female ICR mice were injected with a monomeric form of 239Pu (180.1 kBq/kg) at the age of 10 weeks and during the long-term contamination the incidence of bone sarcomas was studied. Average survival of 100 control mice was 545 +/- 14 days, the 100 plutonium-given mice survived 420 +/- 10 d and 50 sarcoma-bearing animals 456 +/- 11 days. Most of the 61 induced sarcomas were located in the spine (70%) and in trabecular parts of the other bones. Among these 61 tumors there were 55 osteoblastic osteosarcomas, 4 immature undifferentiated sarcomas and 2 angiosarcomas. In 6 tumor-bearing mice metastases were observed in lungs, liver, intracranial cavity and in mediastinal lymph nodes. Among control mice only one osteogenic mandibular sarcoma was verified. The osteosarcoma incidence was evaluated with respect to the retained activity and cumulative average skeletal dose. The results were discussed and compared with data published by others.