A single injection of 5 mg of 7, 12-dimethylbenzanthracene (DMBA) resulted in a high incidence of lingual fibrosarcoma in 67 Wistar rats. No metastases were found. We studied the influence of age and sex on the incidence, latency of tumors, loss of weight and the spontaneous survival of animals. The method described offers an experimental model for the study of cachexia resulting from upper digestive and respiratory tract cancer.