Evaluation of procedures suggested for reducing the pathology workload in a carcinogenesis testing program.

A sampling procedure for reducing the pathology workload in evaluating a carcinogenicity bioassay was utilized for a rodent bioassay. The use of the procedure resulted in 50 percent fewer tissues being examined histologically, in the control groups and 12 percent fewer tissues in the treatment groups. The obvious saving in pathologist's time was negated by an increase in technician time, interference with quality control procedures and loss of nontumor pathology information.