. "6 Relationship of Mustard Agent and Lewisite Exposure to Carcinogenesis." Veterans at Risk: The Health Effects of Mustard Gas and Lewisite. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 1993.
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Veterans at Risk: The Health Effects of Mustard Gas and Lewisite
TABLE 6-1Pulmonary Tumors in Strain A Mice Injected Intravenously with Nitrogen Mustard and Sulfur Mustard
Experiment
Follow-up Duration
No. of Mice
% with Nodules
Mean No. of Nodules
Nitrogen mustard
Experiment I: two to four intravenous injections of 1 mg/kg HN2 (14 received 4 injections; 22 received 3; and one, 2) at 2-day intervals
13-16 wks
29
100
3.48
Control
13-16 wks
30
13
0.17
Experiment II: Four intravenous injections of 1 mg/kg HN2 at 2-day intervals
10 mos
20
100
9.60
Control
10 mos
32
63
0.81
Experiment III: One intravenous injection of 4 mg/kg HN2
10 mos
9
100
7.56
Control
10 mos
31
58
0.94
Sulfur mustard
Experiment IV: Four intravenous injections of 0.65 mg/kg at 2-day intervals
16 wks
15
93
2.60
Control
16 wks
28
61
0.93
Experiment V: Four intravenous injections of 0.65 mg/kg at 2-day intervals
16 wks
47
69
1.09
Control
16 wks
46
13
0.13
SOURCE: Heston, 1949, 1950.
high early mortality: 9 males and 4 females of 30 animals injected died shortly after completion of the injections. The results for the animals surviving 16 weeks showed somewhat fewer mice with lung nodules and a lower mean number of nodules compared to Experiment I with HN2. Further, an unusually high number of controls developed adenomas for which no cause could be identified. When Experiment IV was repeated as Experiment V, by using a lower concentration of sulfur mustard, fewer mice developed lung nodules (68 vs. 93 percent) and the mean number of lung nodules was substantially less (1.09 vs. 2.60). Obviously, there is uncertainty about the actual dose to the animals in the sulfur mustard experiments, particularly in Experiment IV, where the administered dose may have exceeded 1 mg/kg body weight.
A later study by Heston and colleagues (1953) compared the separate and combined effects of intravenous HN2 and X-irradiation (Table 6-2). With only two injections of 1 mg/kg HN2, some animals were tumor free
