Results of screening NCI/NTP nongenotoxic carcinogens and genotoxic noncarcinogens with the k sub e test

The interdependence of the electrophilic and carcinogenic properties of chemicals that was demonstrated two decades ago rekindled interest in the somatic mutation theory of carcinogenesis. Interest in this theory grew with the development of a reverse-mutation bacterial assay in the laboratory of B.N. Ames that permitted the mutagenic properties of the chemicals to be determined quickly and yielded results which indicated that carcinogens are mutagens.'' Subsequent validation studies of this bioassay, the Salmonella typhimurium/microsome or Ames test,'' by Ames' group and others provided additional support for the correlation between mutagenicity and carcinogenicity which led to the worldwide deployment of the Ames test in thousands of laboratories and to the development of more than 100 other short-term tests that continue to be used to identify potential carcinogens via various end-points of genotoxicity. This document discusses electrophilicity, mutagenicity, and carcinogenicity relationships as well as carcinogen-screening of chemicals. 28 refs., 4 tabs.