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The age-specific occurrence of adult T-cell leukemia (ATL) was analyzed using 357 cases collected during nationwide surveys carried out between 1982 and 1985 in Japan. A simple Weibull distribution function fitted well as a model. The mode of ATL onset was log-linear in this model and the curves for males and females overlapped completely. The presence of age-dependent accumulation of leukemogenic events within human T-cell leukemia virus type 1-immortalized T cells was suggested prior to the development of ATL, and the approximate number of independent leukemogenic events in ATL is estimated to be five. This stochastic analysis supported a multi-step carcinogenesis as an appropriate model for ATL.
Okarmoto et al. (Wed,) studied this question.