The Association between Chronic Radiation Damage of the Hair Follicles and Tumor Formation in the Rat

Effect of Fractionation on Tumor Induction and Hair Follicle Damage in Rat Skin.

“…The approximate equality of the 02-Dl values for induction of tumors and atrophic follicles is similar to observations made previously, i.e., that a close dose-response similarity exists (4). The significance of the similarity is unknown, but its persistent occurrence in spite of changes in a variety of radioj biological parameters supports the conclusion that hair follicle atrophy is a factor in skin tumor induction.…”

“…Atrophic hair follicles have been implicated in radiation carcinogenesis of rat skin because of the observation that the tumor incidence was roughly proportional to the incidence of atrophic follicles over a wide range of dose, energy, and LET values (4,5,6,7). The proportionality either reflects a coincidental similarity between the dose-effect relationships or the atrophy is somehow involved in the tumor induction process.…”

Comparison between the early cellular response to electron radiation and the production of tumors

“…The correlation between the incidence of abnormal follicles and thetumor incidence, which was established in earlier experiments 6, on irradiation of skin i.n the .resting phase of hair growth (Albert et al 1967 b), was not supported by the data in the present experiment. Although the ratio of abnormal follicles to tumors was relatively constant for the deep penetration and similar to that which had been obtained for the resting phase, it was widely disparate for the shallow penetration (see Table 11).…”

“…The association between damage and tumor formation was studied in greater detail in resting skin by counting the number of damaged (atrophic) hair follicles in whole mount preparations of irradiated skin (Albert, Burns and Heimbach, 1967 b). It was found that the tumor incidence was directly proportional to the number of atrophic follicles.…”

“…The correlations of Albert et al (1967 b) between abnormal follicles and tumor production and the hypothesis of Glucksmann (1963) that severe tissue disorganization is required for radiation carcinogenesis, are not then necessary conditions. Glucksmann's position which grew out of the observation that severe radiation dermatitis preceded skin tumors in radiation workers has received much attention.…”