Cancer Hazard Evaluations for Contemporary Needs: Highlights From New National Toxicology Program Evaluations and Methodological Advancements

Abstract

The National Toxicology Program (NTP) strives to raise awareness of cancer hazards in our environment. Identifying cancer hazards is key to primary prevention, informing public health decision-making, and decreasing the global cancer burden. In December 2021, the U.S. congressionally mandated 15th Report on Carcinogens (RoC) was released, adding eight new substances to the cumulative report. Chronic infection with Helicobacter pylori is listed as ‘known to be a human carcinogen’. Antimony trioxide and six haloacetic acids found as water disinfection byproducts – dichloroacetic acid, dibromoacetic acid, bromochloroacetic acid, tribromoacetic acid, bromodichloroacetic acid, chlorodibromoacetic acid – are each listed as ‘reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen’. A new dashboard provides interactive visualization and interrogation of the 256 listed substances, their uses, and associated cancers. Also, NTP recently published a Cancer Hazard Assessment Report on exposure scenarios associated with circadian disruption, concluding that (1) persistent night shift work can cause breast cancer, and (2) certain lighting conditions may cause cancer. As highlighted in these reports and evaluations, we are evolving our approaches to meet contemporary challenges. These approaches include (1) focusing on real-world exposures and (2) advancing our methods to address challenges in cancer hazard assessments, e.g., developing more structured approaches to evaluate mechanistic data and incorporating read-across approaches to assess chemicals lacking adequate human or animal cancer data. To promote public health, we provide information on environmental health disparities and disease prevention. Building on these efforts, we aim to continue our contributions to the “war on cancer”, declared 50 years ago.

Pain-free oral delivery of biologic drugs using intestinal peristalsis–actuated microneedle robots

“…The results confirmed that the amount of residual monomers (< 0.2%) remained within the FDA safety limits (fig. S9) ( 37 ).…”

Metal-Based Nanoparticles: A Prospective Strategy for Helicobacter pylori Treatment

“…According to the 15th edition of the carcinogen report in the United States, 97 , 98 H. pylori infection is a global health concern and a known carcinogen. In addition, according to the H. pylori Taipei Global Consensus, the majority of gastric cancers can be avoided if H. pylori infection is eradicated from the population.…”

Bacteria and macrophages in the tumor microenvironment

“…Instead, the lung cancer tissue microbiome is less varied than the corresponding normal tissue microbiome ( Peters et al, 2019 ). In reality, only one specific bacterial species, Helicobacter pylori , which is linked to gastric cancer designated by the World Health Organization as a class I carcinogen ( Lunn et al, 2022 ), and research into other bacterial species’ potential roles as biomarkers in the majority of cancer types has not yet produced any conclusive findings ( Scott et al, 2019 ). There is a large variety of microbial taxa with variable abundance but little overlap in studies of males with prostate cancer ( Shrestha et al, 2018 ).…”