[en] Nearly 40 years ago, the US Atomic Energy Commission made a far- reaching commitment to the support of life-span radiation-effects studies in a relatively long-lived animal, the beagle dog. Something in the range of 200 million dollars has already been spent on a group of closely related experiments, many of which are only now coming to fruition. Responsible fiscal management of these studies, directed toward securing an optimum return from past investments, and toward creative planning of future directions, requires a comprehensive view of this total effort. This report is designed to provide that comprehensive view. This is primarily intended as a research management document. Evaluation and interpretation are tasks for those directly involved in conducting these experiments. The limited objective of the present document is to describe what has been done, to give some of the background for why it was done, to describe results already realized and applications that have been made of these results -- all in a manner designed to display the total effort rather than piecemeal details. While proposing no specific answers to the questions ''Where do we go from here?''it is hoped that the document will provide a basis for approaching that question in an informed manner. The maintenance of a continuity of scientific understanding and direction in these experiments, which often continue beyond the initiating investigators' working life, is no small part of the problem involved in conducting these experiments