| The Science and Practice of Carcinogen Identification and Evaluation Vincent James Cogliano, Robert A. Baan, Kurt Straif, Yann Grosse, Marie Béatrice Secretan, Fatiha El Ghissassi, and Paul Kleihues International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France Abstract
Several national and international health agencies have established programs with the aim of identifying agents and exposures that cause cancer in humans. Carcinogen identification is an activity grounded in the scientific evaluation of the results of human epidemiologic studies, long-term bioassays in experimental animals, and other data relevant to an evaluation of carcinogenicity and its mechanisms. In this commentary, after a brief discussion of the science basis common to the evaluation of carcinogens across different programs, we discuss in more detail the principles and procedures currently used by the IARC Monographs program. Key words: carcinogen, carcinogen identification, conflict of interests, hazard identification, IARC Monographs. Environ Health Perspect 112:1269-1274 (2004) . doi:10.1289/ehp.6950 available via http://dx.doi.org/ [Online 3 June 2004]
Address correspondence to V.J. Cogliano, Chief, Carcinogen Identification and Evaluation, International Agency for Research on Cancer, 150 cours Albert Thomas, 69372 Lyon cedex 08, France. Telephone: 33-4-72-73-84-76. Fax: 33-4-72-73-83-19. E-mail: cogliano@iarc.fr We acknowledge the important contributions of administrative staff of the IARC Monographs program: S. Egraz, M. Lézère, J. Mitchell, and E. Perez. The IARC Monographs are supported, in part, by grants from the U.S. National Cancer Institute, the European Commission, the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The authors declare they have no competing financial interests. Received 31 December 2003 ; accepted 3 June 2004.
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