Incidence of liver tumors in beagles with body burdens of 239Pu or 241Am

Tetravalent 239Pu or trivalent 241Am in a citrate buffer, given via a single intravenous injection to beagles, induced very pronounced liver changes, usually at relatively long postinjection times. The lesions consisted of cell injury or cell necrosis which was followed by nodular hyperplasia and a significant incidence of primary liver tumors. The most frequent neoplasm was the bile duct adenoma, followed by the bile duct carcinoma. A lesser number of sarcomas were also induced, especially fibrosarcomas. The number of hepatic cell tumors was low. An abnormally high incidence of both hyperplastic nodules and primary liver tumors occurred at long postinjection times and at average doses extending down to ∼10 rads. The various nodular lesions and liver tumors frequently occurred as incidental findings in dogs dying from other causes, especially bone cancer. In comparison to bone neoplasia, the liver was a much less important target organ in the high-dose level groups, but in some of the low-dose groups, especially in the 241Am groups, the risk of radiation-induced liver cancer was approximately equal to or exceeded the risk of skeletal tumors. However, in any projection of the risks observed in this animal model to man, one should be mindful that the beagle skeleton is approximately 25 times more sensitive to radiation-induced bone neoplasia than is the human skeleton (Mays et al., 1976) and that the radiosensitivity difference for the beagle and human liver is unknown. 41 refs., 8 figs., 5 tabs