Induction of mammary neoplasms in the ACI rat by 430-keV neutrons, X-rays, and diethylstilbestrol.

Mammary tumorigenesis was studied in female ACi rats after treatment with X-irradiation or neutron-irradiation, with or without diethylstilbestrol (DES) treatment. The mortality-corrected cumulative tumor rate based on all mammary neoplasms and the mortality-corrected incidence based on the first neoplasms only have been derived. In non-DES-treated animals, at the relatively high radiation doses studied, all dose-effect relationships were consistent with relative biological effectiveness (RBE) values slightly in excess of 10. In DES-treated rats definite findings were observed at neutron doses as low as 0.01 Gy (1 rad). The dose-effect relationship in DES-treated rats showed a strong sublinearly (dose exponent less than 1) at low neutron doses. RBE values in DES-treated rats increased in inverse proportion to the square root of the neutron dose, and exceeded 100 at a neutron dose of 0.01 Gy (1 rad).