Screening assays for carcinogenic agents and mixtures: an appraisal based on data in the IARC Monograph series

To determine whether genotoxic and non-genotoxic carcinogens contribute similarly to the cancer burden in humans and which types of short-term test are more relevant for predicting human hazards, an analysis was performed on agents that were evaluated in IARC Monographs Supplements 6 and 7 for their carcinogenic effects in humans and animals and for activity in short-term genotoxicity tests. The prevalence of genotoxicity among four groups of agents, consisting of established human carcinogens (group 1, n = 30), probable human carcinogens (group 2A, n = 37), possible human carcinogens (group 2B, n = 113) and agents with limited evidence of carcinogenicity in animals (a subset of group 3, n = 66) was determined. Each of the groups 1, 2A and 2B contained a high proportion (80-90%) of genotoxic carcinogens, which were also multi-species or multi-tissue carcinogens. The distribution of carcinogenic potency in rodents did not reveal any specific characteristic of the human carcinogens in group 1 that would differentiate them from agents in groups 2A, 2B and many in group 3. Although limited by the data-base available through the Monographs series, this analysis implies that genotoxic carcinogens add more to the human cancer burden than non-genotoxic carcinogens. Thus, the continued use of in vitro/in vivo short-term tests, involving as endpoints DNA chromosomal or mutational damage, to identify genotoxic carcinogens or in the isolation of carcinogenic components in complex mixtures is fully justified. It is concluded that (a) an agent or complex mixture with unknown carcinogenic potential showing sufficient evidence of activity in genotoxicity assays in vitro or in vivo is likely to represent a hazard to humans and (b) an agent or complex mixture showing lack of activity in this spectrum of genotoxicity assays should undergo evaluation for carcinogenicity for rodent bioassay, in view of the present lack of validated short-term tests for non-genotoxic carcinogens.