Time course of development of metastasis in irradiated Lewis lung carcinoma: relationship between primary tumor volume and metastasis.

The influence of local irradiation on the development of metastases and primary tumor volume was studied in Lewis lung carcinoma growing intramuscularly in the hind leg of C57BL/6 mice. The time course of development of metastases was determined from the size of the lung colonies at autopsy by determining the growth rate of the colonies. Irradiation within five days after tumor cell injection inhibited the incidence of metastases in accordance with irradiation dose. For irradiation more than seven days after the injection, promotion of metastases was observed around the time of the experiment as a function of irradiation dose and tumor volume. After the irradiation phase, the development of metastases was inhibited in accordance with radiation dose. When delay in metastasis was defined as additional days needed to develop two or ten colonies compared with controls, the relationship between delay and dose was linear. At the regrowth phase of the primary tumor, the incidence of metastases from the irradiated tumor was reduced in comparison with that from unirradiated tumors of the same size. Inhibition of metastases was observed only at 5 Gy and showed slight dose-dependency. Mechanisms in the development of metastases as they related to these findings are also discussed.