Bos PMJ, Baars BJ, van Raaij MTM. Risk assessment of peak exposure to genotoxic carcinogens: a pragmatic approach.
Toxicol Lett 2004;
151:43-50. [PMID:
15177639 DOI:
10.1016/j.toxlet.2004.01.027]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/05/2004] [Revised: 01/06/2004] [Accepted: 01/06/2004] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
Short-term exposures to relatively high concentrations or doses are a regular cause of concern. Since carcinogenicity is often of great personal and social relevance the question arises whether short-term exposure (1-10 days) to a carcinogenic substance may contribute to tumour development and, if so, whether this contribution to the cancer risk can be quantified. The present object was to explore the possibility of a pragmatic estimation of the cancer risk of peak exposure to a genotoxic carcinogen relative to the cancer risk of the same cumulative dose of this carcinogen distributed over lifetime. A report published by the Health Council of The Netherlands served as point of departure. Published data strongly suggests that short-term or single exposure can indeed give rise to tumour formation in animal experiments. The application of a dose-rate correction factor (DRCF), defined as a factor by which the tumour incidence caused by a specific dose of a chemical carcinogen at low-dose rates is multiplied to derive the tumour incidence at high-dose rates, appears to be a feasible approach. Theoretical models calculated maximum values for the DRCF of up to seven for a young child acutely exposed to an initiator or first-stage carcinogen. A maximum value of 8.3 was calculated from animal experiments. A decision tree is presented which allows the pragmatic assessment of the carcinogenic risk following short-term exposure to genotoxic carcinogens. It is recommended to validate this decision tree with model-substances.
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