In vitro–in vivo carcinogenicity

Abstract

The evaluation of the carcinogenic potential of chemicals constitutes an essential step in assessing the risk that the chemicals pose to human health. The “gold standard” method to evaluate the carcinogenic potential of chemicals is the carcinogenicity test in laboratory animals. However, because carcinogenicity studies in vivo are extremely time-consuming, expensive, make use of a high number of animals, and cannot be used to screen a high number of compounds at the same time, various different in vitro cell transformation assays have been developed. In this report, procedures to test the carcinogenicity in vivo and in vitro are described, whereby in the latter case three extensively evaluated test systems (the BALB/c 3T3 cell transformation assay, the Bhas 42 cell transformation assay, and the Syrian hamster embryo assay) are presented. Their performance shows that they are a useful complement to in vitro genotoxicity test batteries, can be used to identify non-genotoxic carcinogens, and as screening assays may significantly limit the number of chemicals to undergo an in vivo carcinogenicity testing, thereby strongly reducing the number of laboratory animals to be used. In the future, the development of human cell line-based transformation assays may contribute to increase further their relevance and the willingness to incorporate them into existing in vitro toxicity test batteries.