Predicting chemicals causing cancer in animals as human carcinogens

Further to the posit by Suarthana et al (Occup Environ Med 2009;66:713–14) for predicting occupational diseases, long-term carcinogenesis bioassays using experimental animals are the most predictive method for identifying likely human carcinogens. Since the 1960s, bioassays have proven a mainstay for identifying chemical carcinogens, establishing occupational exposure standards, and primary cancer prevention. The reasons, rationale, and validity are many. Most importantly, long-term bioassays are both predictive (prospective) and confirmatory (retrospective) for human carcinogens. Historically there has long been an agreeable association between carcinogenic outcomes from bioassays and human cancer hazards.1 2 These correlations stem from accumulated evidence over the last 50 years during the modern era of experimental carcinogenesis. …