Huff J
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27709.
Pharmacol Toxicol. 1993;72 Suppl 1:12-27. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0773.1993.tb01664.x.
Certain chemicals, mixtures of chemicals, exposure circumstances, life-styles and personal or cultural habits, occupations, viruses, living conditions, and physical agents have been causally associated with cancers in humans. Most however are not considered potentially carcinogenic, and the proportion of 'agents' eventually identified to cause cancer is projected to be relatively low. Current methods to identify carcinogenic potential of chemicals rely largely on short-term in vitro and in vivo tests, mid- & long-term in vivo assays, molecular mechanisms, epidemiological investigations, and structural-activity-effect-relationships. Thus, the scientific and public health communities must continue to utilize available means and concomitantly strive to develop newer methods and tools to more easily, quickly, cheaply, and reliably identify carcinogens in the human milieu. Since adequate human studies are typically absent, the most useful method for identifying potential human carcinogens continues to be long-term carcinogenesis experiments. Agents identified as causing cancers in humans have been shown to cause cancer in animals, and this knowledge, together with similarities in mechanisms of carcinogenesis across species, led to the scientific logic and public health strategy that chemicals shown clearly to be carcinogenic in animals should be considered as being likely and anticipated to present cancer risks to humans. The quest of hazard identification efforts is cancer prevention, largely by reducing or eliminating exposures to chemicals that cause cancer and other diseases.
某些化学物质、化学物质混合物、接触环境、生活方式、个人或文化习惯、职业、病毒、生活条件及物理因素已被证实与人类癌症存在因果关系。然而，大多数此类因素并不被认为具有潜在致癌性，预计最终确定会导致癌症的“因素”比例相对较低。目前用于确定化学物质致癌潜力的方法主要依赖短期体外和体内试验、中长期体内试验、分子机制、流行病学调查以及构效关系。因此，科学界和公共卫生界必须继续利用现有手段，同时努力开发更新的方法和工具，以便更轻松、快速、廉价且可靠地识别人类环境中的致癌物。由于通常缺乏充分的人体研究，确定潜在人类致癌物最有用的方法仍然是长期致癌实验。已证实可导致人类患癌的因素也会在动物身上引发癌症，基于这一认识以及不同物种致癌机制的相似性，形成了这样的科学逻辑和公共卫生策略：在动物身上明确显示具有致癌性的化学物质应被视为可能且预期会给人类带来癌症风险。危害识别工作的目标是预防癌症，主要通过减少或消除接触致癌及其他疾病的化学物质来实现。
