Historical control data of neoplastic lesions in the Wistar Hannover Rat among eight 2-year carcinogenicity studies

Incidences of neoplastic lesions were evaluated in untreated Hannover Wistar Rats RjHan: WI (470 males and 470 females) used as control animals in eight carcinogenicity studies. All these studies were performed in a similar environment either for the in vivo and the postmortem evaluation. The major neoplastic lesions were found in the endocrine, integumentary and reproductive systems. Pituitary adenoma was the most frequent neoplasm and occurred in 33.9% of the males and 54.6% of the female rats. The other most frequent tumors in males were thyroid C-cell adenoma (8.6%), pancreatic islet cell adenoma (8.1%), subcutaneous fibrosarcoma (6.6%), subcutaneous fibroma (4.7%), benign pheochromocytoma (3.4%), and cutaneous keratoacanthoma (3.4%). In females, the other highest incidences were mammary fibroadenoma (29%), uterine endometrial stromal polyp (18.1%), mammary adenocarcinoma (14.2%), mammary fibroadenoma with atypia (13.7%), thyroid C-cell adenoma (7.5%), benign thymoma (3.7%), and subcutaneous fibrosarcoma (3.6%). All these data were compared to previously published historical control data. This retrospective analysis was undergone in order to illustrate the result of a stable organization which guarantees a robust historical data base for neoplastic and non neoplastic findings.