Abstract
For the most part, the quantitative aspects of risk assessment for carcinogens currently involve using standard animal bioassay data and making assumptions about dose-response such as linearity at low-dosage levels and no threshold for the effect. These procedures are not considered to predict actual risk but to reflect an upper bound on risk. The true, but indeterminate, risk could be as high as this upper bound value and as low as zero. As we learn more about mechanisms of carcinogenesis, we anticipate that more biological information will lead to refinement of predicted dose-response curves and, hence, predicted risk. Two types of biological information currently being explored for their value in this regard are cell proliferation and covalent adduct formation with cellular macromolecules. Both of these types of data have the potential to allow reliable characterization of the dose-response curve to lower doses than is possible with bioassay data alone. This may allow in certain cases for the predictions of the upper bound risk to be closer to the actuarial risk at the low exposure levels usually encountered. Much work and careful interpretation need to be done before these approaches become routinely viable. However, the time has come to take seriously the potential that this kind of biological information can have on quantitative risk assessment.
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© 1989 Plenum Press, New York
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Lorentzen, R.J., Brown, R.N. (1989). Consideration of Cell Proliferation and Adduct Formation as Parameters Affecting Risk Outcome. In: Bonin, J.J., Stevenson, D.E. (eds) Risk Assessment in Setting National Priorities. Advances in Risk Analysis, vol 7. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-5682-0_30
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-5682-0_30
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