Effect of total-body irradiation on the transplantability of mouse leukemias.

Summary Mice with advanced transplanted leukemia were given a single dose of total-body radiation, and leukemia cells from spleen, ascitic fluid, or subcutaneous tumors were transplanted 2 or 24 hours later into susceptible mice. The dose of radiation to donor animals sufficient to reduce the takes in suitable recipients to less than 50 per cent was from 2000 to 2500 r in leukemia B82T, 3500 r in P329 and B82, 3500 to 4000 r in L1210 and P1081, and over 5000 r in leukemias P388 and P815. It is obviously difficult to extrapolate between transplanted mouse leukemia and spontaneous human leukemia given irradiation by different technics, but these data suggest that it would be difficult to sterilize the cells of advanced human leukemia by levels of total-body irradiation, the toxic effects of which can be protected against by injection of human bone marrow.