Approaches In Carcinogenicity Hazard Assessment: Current Status and Future Needs

Historically, identifying carcinogens has relied primarily on tumor studies in rodents, which require enormous resources in both money and time. models have been developed for predicting rodent carcinogens but have not yet found general regulatory acceptance, in part due to the lack of a generally accepted protocol for performing such an assessment as well as limitations in predictive performance and scope. There remains a need for additional, improved carcinogenicity models, especially ones that are more human-relevant, for use in research and regulatory decision-making. As part of an international effort to develop toxicological protocols, a consortium of toxicologists, computational scientists, and regulatory scientists across several industries and governmental agencies evaluated the extent to which models exist for each of the recently defined 10 key characteristics (KCs) of carcinogens. This position paper summarizes the current status of tools for the assessment of each KC and identifies the data gaps that need to be addressed before a comprehensive carcinogenicity protocol can be developed for regulatory use.