International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France.
School of Medicine, Dentistry, and Biomedical Sciences, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, UK.
Occup Environ Med. 2024 Aug 16;81(7):366-372. doi: 10.1136/oemed-2023-109277.
To summarise the rationale, workflow and recommendations for the conduct of exposure assessment critiques in key human studies evaluated for International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) on the Identification of Carcinogenic Hazards.
Approaches to evaluating exposure assessment quality in human cancer and mechanistic studies were reviewed according to the precepts outlined in the IARC Preamble, using two agents as case studies. Exposure assessment 'domains', that is, salient aspects of exposure assessment for the agent under evaluation, were selected for review across the key human studies.
The case studies of night shift work (volume 124) and 1,1,1-trichloroethane (volume 130) used a common approach, tailored to the agents' specific exposure scenarios, to evaluate exposure assessment quality. Based on the experiences of IARC Working Groups to date, the implementation of exposure assessment critique requires the need for agent-specific knowledge, consideration of the validity of time-varying exposure metrics related to duration and intensity, and transparent, concise reviews that prioritise the most important strengths and limitations of exposure assessment methods used in human studies.
Exposure assessment has not historically been a fully appreciated component for evaluating the quality of epidemiological studies in cancer hazard identification. Exposure assessment critique in key human cancer and mechanistic studies is now an integral part of IARC evaluations and its conduct will continue to evolve as new agents are evaluated. The approaches identified here should be considered as a potential framework by others when evaluating the exposure assessment component of epidemiological studies for systematic reviews.
总结在国际癌症研究机构（IARC）对人类研究进行评估时进行暴露评估评审的基本原理、工作流程和建议，这些研究旨在确定致癌危害。
根据 IARC 序言中概述的原则，审查了评估人类癌症和机制研究中暴露评估质量的方法，并以两种物质作为案例研究。选择评估对象的“暴露评估领域”（即评估对象的暴露评估的显著方面），对关键人类研究中的暴露评估进行审查。
夜班工作（第 124 卷）和 1,1,1-三氯乙烷（第 130 卷）这两个案例研究采用了一种共同的方法，根据评估对象的具体暴露情况进行了调整，以评估暴露评估的质量。根据迄今为止 IARC 工作组的经验，实施暴露评估评审需要特定物质的知识，考虑与持续时间和强度相关的时变暴露指标的有效性，以及透明、简明的审查，重点突出人类研究中使用的暴露评估方法的最重要的优势和局限性。
在癌症危害识别中，暴露评估历来不是评估流行病学研究质量的一个完全被重视的组成部分。在关键的人类癌症和机制研究中进行暴露评估评审现在是 IARC 评估的一个组成部分，随着新物质的评估，其实施将继续发展。这里确定的方法应被其他评估人员在对系统评价中的流行病学研究的暴露评估部分进行评估时考虑作为潜在的框架。
