Inhibition of 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene-induced tumors in Syrian hamsters by prior infection with H-1 parvovirus.

Hamsters, given injections s.c. at birth of H-1 parvovirus and 1 month later given a single injection of 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene, had a 38% tumor incidence compared with a 95% incidence in animals receiving 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene alone. Thus, H-1 which, it has already been shown, invokes a resistance to the incidence of spontaneous and adenovirus-induced neoplasms in hamsters also produces a suppression of a carcinogen-induced tumor in these animals; this suggests that the H-1-induced barrier to successful oncogenesis by these diverse agents has a common mechanism which, present experiments indicate, is not related to a positive or negative H-1 serology. The pathology of the 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene-induced tumors was similar for both control and H-1-infected hamsters. Although all but one of the primary neoplasms were anaplastic fibrosarcomas as reported previously by others, 25% of the affected females had, in addition, mammary adenocarcinomas, an extremely rare tumor in hamsters.