Synergism of diethylstilbestrol and other carcinogens in concurrent development of hepatic, mammary, and pituitary tumors in castrated male rats.

Castrated male WF rats, given implants of pellets containing 5.0 mg diethylstilbestrol (DES), were given N-butyl-N-nitrosourea (NBU) in small amounts, which alone produced no mammary tumors in intact female rats. Treatment resulted in the high yield of hepatic tumors (HT), mammary tumors (MT), and pituitary tumors (PT) concurrently in each rat. If animals were further treated with prolactin, the development of HT and MT was accelerated, whereas that of PT was suppressed. None of the intact or castrated rats receiving NBU and/or prolactin developed tumors in any tissues if DES treatment was omitted. Exposure of male rats, preconditioned similarly to NBU treatment, to 200 rads of 14.1-MeV fast-neutron radiation also elicited HT, MT, and PT with an efficiency comparable to that of NBU-treated rats. These findings indicate that DES played an essential role in the whole carcinogenic process in each tissue and that castrated male rats, if conditioned properly with estrogens, are useful for the study of the carcinogenesis mechanism in these tissues.