Methyl-tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE)--a gasoline additive--causes testicular and lymphohaematopoietic cancers in rats

In the framework of a series of experiments conducted to evaluate the carcinogenic effects of oxygenated gasoline additives, MTBE was analyzed in an oral lifetime carcinogenicity study using 8-week-old male and female Sprague-Dawley rats. These experiments were part of a large research project on gasoline carcinogenicity performed at the Bentivoglio (BT) Castle Cancer Research Center of the Ramazzini Foundation and of the Bologna Institute of Oncology, MTBE, dissolved in oil, was administered by stomach tube at the doses of 1000, 250, or 0 mg/kg b.w., once daily, four days weekly, for 104 weeks. The animals were maintained until natural death. The last animal died 166 weeks after the start of the experiment, i.e., at 174 weeks of age. Under the tested experimental conditions, MTBE was shown to cause an increase in Leydig interstitial cell tumors of the testes and a dose-related increase in lymphomas and leukemias in female rats.