Decreasing leukemia risk in old AKR mice.
Leukemia incidence and survivorship were studied in 480 untreated adult female AKR mice using repeated blood testing on live animals and autopsy for diagnosis. The data were statistically analysed within the framework of a Markov illness-death model. The leukemia risk was close to zero below an age of four-five months, increased sharply to a maximum at eight-nine months, and then declined markedly. Old AKR mice therefore should be useful for studies of age dependent alterations that reduce the risk of leukemia development. The observed age-dependence of the leukemia risk is at variance with the simplest version of the multistep hypothesis. Allowing for individual tendencies for leukemia development, good correlation between expected and observed values can be obtained.
D000367:Age Factors; D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D007942:Leukemia, Experimental / Q000401:mortality*; D008297:Male; D008390:Markov Chains; D051379:Mice; D008806:Mice, Inbred AKR; D012306:Risk; D012737:Sex Factors