Multi-step carcinogenesis model for adult T-cell leukemia.
The age-specific occurrence of adult T-cell leukemia (ATL) was analyzed using 357 cases collected during nationwide surveys carried out between 1982 and 1985 in Japan. A simple Weibull distribution function fitted well as a model. The mode of ATL onset was log-linear in this model and the curves for males and females overlapped completely. The presence of age-dependent accumulation of leukemogenic events within human T-cell leukemia virus type 1-immortalized T cells was suggested prior to the development of ATL, and the approximate number of independent leukemogenic events in ATL is estimated to be five. This stochastic analysis supported a multi-step carcinogenesis as an appropriate model for ATL.
Okamoto
T
T
Virology Division, National Cancer Center, Tokyo.
Ohno
Y
Y
Tsugane
S
S
Watanabe
S
S
Shimoyama
M
M
Tajima
K
K
Miwa
M
M
Shimotohno
K
K
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D015459:Leukemia-Lymphoma, Adult T-Cell / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008954:Models, Biological; D012984:Software; D013223:Statistics as Topic