THE DISTRIBUTION OF INCUBATION PERIODS OF NEOPLASTIC DISEASES1

Abstract

This study attempts to apply Sartwell's model of the distribution of incubation periods in infectious diseases to the distribution of incubation periods in neoplasms. In order to estimate this distribution, the literature was reviewed for neoplastic diseases with some known etiologic factors and specific exposure times. For the selected neoplasms, most of the observations approximate a logarithmic normal distribution. Four different sets of observations on radiogenic leukemias, although collected from different populations and under different conditions, had estimated median incubation periods and dispersion factors that were quite similar. The distribution of latent intervals between the last dose of chloramphenicol and the first manifestation of pancytopenia fits the log normal pattern and raises the potential of generalizing from Sartwell's model to other chronic diseases.