International Commission for Protection Against Environmental Mutagens and Carcinogens. ICPEMC publication No. 19. The classification of carcinogens identified in the rodent bioassay as potential risks to humans: what type of substance should be tested next?

Carcinogenicity of policosanol in Sprague Dawley rats: a 24 month study

The effects of policosanol (50-500 mg/kg) administered orally for 24 months to Sprague Dawley rats of both sexes were investigated. No differences related to daily clinical observations, weight gain, food consumption, or mortality (survival analysis) between groups were found. Histopathological study showed that the frequency of the occurrence of non-neoplastic and neoplastic (benign and malignant) lesions was similar in the control and policosanol-treated groups. The lesions observed in this study were similar to the spontaneous lesions reported in this species in previous studies. Since no drug-related increase in the occurrence of malignant or benign neoplasms was found, nor acceleration in tumors growth in any specific group was observed, this study shows no evidence of policosanol induced carcinogenicity in this strain of rats.

Structural basis of the in vivo induction of micronuclei

The structural basis of the in vivo induction of micronuclei was examined with CASE, a structure-activity relational method. The CASE program identified a number of structures associated with this activity. When used to predict the activity of chemicals not included in the learning set, these structural determinants gave a concordance in excess of 83%. The existence of a structural basis for the induction of micronuclei will permit an investigation of the mechanistic basis of this phenomenon.

Carcinogenic chemicals in food: evaluating the health risk

The presence of a low level of potentially harmful chemicals in food continues to be a concern to many individuals. A major concern is that these chemicals, which can be synthetic or naturally occurring, may be a causative factor in human cancer. Synthetic chemicals in food may be present either as specific additives or as contaminants derived from environmental or agricultural chemicals. Food also contains a variety of naturally occurring chemicals derived from vegetables or other plants. These may in some cases be considered as contaminants, and are occasionally used as specific additives. New chemicals can also be formed during the cooking or preserving processes. The capacity of any of these chemicals to induce cellular damage and mutation is minimized by natural defence systems such as an efficient cellular detoxification system and DNA repair. The factors influencing tumour formation in humans are numerous and interrelated and exposure to minor dietary chemicals needs to be considered in this context. Thus, the results of animal carcinogenicity assays on individual chemicals need to be interpreted with care, taking into account the mechanisms by which mutagenic and other chemicals initiate cancer, as well as the level of human exposure to these chemicals. Further research is necessary to determine the role, if any, of minor dietary components in tumour formation. Meanwhile, there needs to be a more holistic approach to the multitude of factors, including total diet, that may influence human cancer incidence. In this way, the relative risk of dietary chemicals may be given a more meaningful perspective for health professionals and consumers alike.

Calories, fat, fibers, and cellular proliferation in Swiss Webster mice

Increased cellular proliferation has been associated with the enhanced expression of several key stages in carcinogenesis. A standard protocol was used to investigate the effect of specific dietary regimens on cellular proliferation. Young adult Swiss Webster mice were fed for 30 days with modified AIN-76A semi-purified diets designed to illustrate the effects of the levels of dietary or calorie restriction, different fibers and bulking agents, and different fats on cellular proliferation. Female mice were used for the restriction and fat studies, males for the fiber and bulking agent studies. Vaginal smears were taken from females from treatment day 15, and the mice killed 2 days following the first estrus following 30 days feeding; males were killed on the 30th day. One hour before death, mice were injected ip with 0.25 micro Ci/g 3[H]-thymidine. Slides were prepared for radioautography and histopathology. Both dietary and calorie restriction led to reduced 3[H]-thymidine labeling indices in each of the seven tissues studied, the mammary gland being the most severely affected. Different fibers and bulking agents, in specific cases, reduced labeling in the duodenum but not to a consistent statistically significant extent in the colon or colo-rectal region. In the duodenum, oat bran and oat gum were the most effective while wood cellulose (alphacel) had no effect. Investigations on the effects of different fats is continuing. High levels of lard, menhaden oil, or cod liver oil as the fat component of the AIN-76A diet, led to much higher levels of labeled cells in the mammary gland or colo-rectal region than did fat components rich in vegetable oils. The labeling indices appeared to be inversely correlated with the level of linoleic acid in the diet, a presumption that has been confirmed by investigating a series of diets containing different levels of this acid. Anti-oxidants were not used in any of these fat-modified diets. The overall results obtained in these studies clearly indicate the utility of cellular proliferation studies in investigating the effects of dietary modifications.

Classification of carcinogens: polemics, pedantics, or progress?

Rodent carcinogens may, for physiological or other reasons, induce cancer by a variety of mechanisms which vary in their ability to affect humans. While the current approach of some regulatory agencies to carcinogen risk assessment and regulation may possibly be justified with most genotoxic carcinogens, this is not true with all nongenotoxic carcinogens. Mechanisms attributable to high dose toxicity occasioned by misuse of the maximum tolerated dose concept, imbalancing of homeostasis, unphysiological conditions, and induced cellular proliferation are reviewed. The greatest present need for meaningful regulation of carcinogens is to obtain public acceptance of the fact that some carcinogens are species specific and probably will not exert their effects in humans.

An appreciation of the maximum tolerated dose: an inadequately precise decision point in designing a carcinogenesis bioassay?

Cancers arise in specific tissues. One difficulty with the present definitions of the Maximum Tolerated Dose (MTD), as they pertain to the rodent cancer bioassay, is that they base MTD on relatively crude parameters associated with the well-being of the entire animal rather than with the lack of specific tissue toxicity. Additional factors that could be included in the MTD definition, or could be separately determined, are addressed. Many of these factors refer to toxic behavior in one or a few tissues and, if used in setting the MTD, may mask more relevant events occurring at higher dose levels in other tissues. Reducing the MTD to a level that fails to take into account pesticide or drug-related toxicity may lead to the loss of relevant information in the bioassay. It is concluded, therefore, that there are two possible approaches to a more appropriate use of the MTD. The highest dose of the test agent (MTD) may be chosen (i) to lie below the thresholds of carcinogenicity-related non-genotoxic toxicity or (ii) the present high level MTD may continue to be used and tumors that arise may be classified as being irrelvant to humans at some or all exposure levels. The latter approach is to be preferred. It has the potential to avoid missing high level effects of the test agent that may be relevant to the human population.