Two-dimensional (time and multiplicity) statistical analysis of multiple tumors (Q1822438)

The paper proposes a statistical method which is used in characterizing the statistical distribution of multiple tumors in animals. The theory uses three parameters. A parameter \(\alpha\) describes whether a tumor induces \((\alpha >0)\) or inhibits \((\alpha <0)\) subsequent tumors, or each tumor occurs independently \((\alpha =0)\). It is assumed that tumors start to grow only after a certain age \(J_ 0\), and after this time tumor occurrence is described with the rate constant k (tumors/week per animal). The theory is applied to data on spontaneous multiple tumors observed in MRC rats. The number of animals that died in the Jth period and had n tumors in a body is written as \(A_ J(n)\). The entire set of numbers \(A_ J(n)\) is displayed in a table called the MT (multiple tumor) table. All data in the MT table are used in determining the three parameters. The method can be used in evaluating the effectiveness of chemicals against cancer, and also can be used for some other problems. It is pointed out that the \(\alpha >0\) case follows the Bose-Einstein statistics, the \(\alpha <0\) the Fermi-Dirac, and the \(\alpha =0\) the classical Poisson distribution.