Bone sarcoma characteristics and distribution in beagles injected with radium-226

A total of 155 primary bone sarcomas were found in 131 of the 246 beagles injected with226 Ra and 5 primary bone sarcomas were found in 4 of the 158 unexposed controls. Of these 155 bone sarcomas, 146 (94%) were osteosarcomas and 9 were non-osteosarcomas. An additional 31 primary bone sarcomas (28 osteosarcomas) developed in 44 dogs terminated from the main study because of limb amputation for bone sarcoma. Non-osteosarcomas predominated in both the controls and the second lowest of six logarithmically increasing dose levels (there were no bone sarcomas in the lowest dose group). Osteosarcomas predominated at the higher dose levels, and incidence tended to increase as dose increased. The 146 osteosarcomas were distributed quite evenly between males and females (72:74). Of the 9 non-osteosarcomas, 6 occurred in males and 3 in females. The ratio of bone sarcomas of the appendicular skeleton to those in the axial skeleton was 110:45, with osteosarcomas occurring more often in the appendicular skeleton (108:3...