Analysis of time dependence of osteosarcoma incidence in mice following 239Pu injection

An analysis is made of the time dependence of the incidence of osteosarcoma in mice who had been infected at the age of 10 weeks with an activity of 180.1 kBq/kg of monomer 239Pu. The observed incidence of osteosarcoma is 50%. Following a correction for death by other causes the corrected incidence is approximately 100%. The discussion on problems of death by other causes and the results of the analysis of the time course of the speed of death caused by tumour and osteosarcoma expectancy shows that the chosen level of applied activity is in the region in which the incidence of osteosarcoma is highest. General comments on the methods of analysis used are presented which may be useful for the analogical analysis of other experiments. (author)