Transcriptional Biomarkers to Predict Female Mouse Lung Tumors in Rodent Cancer Bioassays - A 13 Chemical Training Set

The primary goal of toxicology and safety testing is to identify agents that have the potential to cause adverse effects in humans. Unfortunately, many of these tests have not changed significantly in the past 30 years and most are inefficient, costly, and rely heavily on the use of animals. The rodent cancer bioassay is one of these safety tests and was originally established as a screen to identify potential carcinogens that would be further analyzed in human epidemiological studies. Today, the rodent cancer bioassay has evolved into the primary means to determine the carcinogenic potential of a chemical and generate quantitative information on dose-response behavior in chemical risk assessments. Due to the resource-intensive nature of these studies, each bioassay costs $2 to $4 million and takes over three years to complete. Over the past 30 years, only 1,468 chemicals have been tested in a rodent cancer bioassay. By comparison, approximately 9,000 chemicals are used by industry in quantities greater than 10,000 lbs and nearly 90,000 chemicals have been inventoried by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as part of the Toxic Substances Control Act. Given the disparity between the number of chemicals tested in a rodent cancer bioassay and the number of chemicals used by industry, a more efficient and economical system of identifying chemical carcinogens needs to be developed.

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Thomas RS, Pluta L, Yang L, Halsey TA