One of the important concerns for astronauts in space environment is cancer risk associated with cosmic radiation, including heavy particle carbon-ions. But little information on cancer risk is available. In the present study, we investigated the induction of and cellular and molecular characteristics of T-cell lymphomas of B6C3F1 mice induced by carbon-ions and X-rays. The incidence, the latent period and the surface expression of T-cell differentiation antigens were similar between carbon-ion- and X-ray-induced lymphomas. The size of T-cell lymphomas induced by carbon-ions was significantly smaller than that by X-rays. Molecular analysis indicated that high frequency of loss of heterozygosity (LOH) was found on chromosomes 4, 11, 12 and 19 in both lymphomas. Interestingly, the frequency of LOH on chromosome 11 was much higher, but that on chromosome 12 was lower in carbon-ion-induced T-cell lymphomas than in X-ray-induced ones. These results indicate that mechanistic differences may exist between carbon-ion- and X-ray-induced lymphomagenesis.