Human variability in susceptibility How big, how often, for what responses to what agents?

This paper first reviews in plain language some basic concepts and methods for estimating inter-individual variability in susceptibility from human data. A scale is offered to allow different variability findings to be understood and compared. Then the accumulated results of different variability analyses, information on how much variability has been observed and how often, is summarized in the form of a series of box plots. Data are presented on pharmacodynamic variability for various non-cancer effects, variability in susceptibility to infectious organisms, and variability in susceptibility to carcinogenesis by genetically-acting agents.