Summation effect of two chemically unrelated carcinogens was investigated, using 4-nitroquinoline N-oxide and 20-methylcholanthrene. Doses of each of these two carcinogens that can be applied to the mouse skin without producing tumors (submanifestational doses) were first worked out, and then, in the main experiments, submanifestational dose of either one was given followed by that of the other and the rate of tumor production observed.
The results established that the submanifestational carcinogenic process started by 20-methylcholanthrene can be quantitatively brought to manifestation (tumor production) by 4-nitroquinoline N-oxide, and
vice versa, showing that the effects of these two carcinogens, in spite of the striking chemical difference, are capable of summation, and suggesting that the immediate carcinogenic mechanism may be qualitatively identical for the two. It was also demonstrated that the submanifestational effect produced by the first treatment with either carcinogen persisted without any recognizable loss for at least 200 days, and was capable of summation with the effect of the second treatment, just as quantitatively as when the second treatment immediately followed the first.
These results definitely support the postulate that cancerization results from the summation of a multiple of alterations in the self-replicating cell subunits (duplicants), each alteration being irreversible, and add an important fact that the alterations caused by a carcinogen of one type can summate with those that are due to another of different kind.
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