Predicting the carcinogenicity of chemicals in humans from rodent bioassay data
- Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States) School of Public Health, Boston, MA (United States)
- Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States)
Regulatory agencies currently rely on rodent carcinogenicity bioassay data to predict whether or not a given chemical poses a carcinogenic threat to humans. The authors argue that it is always more useful to know a chemical's carcinogenic potency (with confidence limits) than to be able to say only qualitatively that it has been found to be a carcinogen. In a typical bioassay, a chemical is administered to groups of 50 to 100 rodents at the highest feasible level (the maximum tolerated dose) and rarely at less than 1/10 this dose in order to maximize the statistical significance of any increase in tumors that might result. Recently, much experimental work has focused on the mechanisms by which site-specific toxicity arising from chronic administration at the maximum tolerated dose may lead to carcinogenicity. Extrapolation of high-dose results to low dose does not take into consideration the possibility of a threshold dose, below which the carcinogenic potency is much lower or even zero. Threshold dose-response phenomena may be much more relevant to the etiology of cancer in the rodent bioassays than was earlier realized; if so, there is an even greater need for establishing dose-dependent potency estimates. The emphasis of this review is in the interspecies comparison of high-dose potencies. The qualitative and quantitative comparison of carcinogenicities between mice and rats and between rodents and humans is reviewed and discussed. They conclude that there is a good qualitative (yes/no) correlation for both the rat/mouse and the rodent/human comparison.
- OSTI ID:
- 6097652
- Journal Information:
- Environmental Health Perspectives; (United States), Vol. 94; ISSN 0091-6765
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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560300* - Chemicals Metabolism & Toxicology