Trosko JE. What Can Chemical Carcinogenesis Shed Light on the LNT Hypothesis in Radiation Carcinogenesis?
Dose Response 2019;
17:1559325819876799. [PMID:
31565039 PMCID:
PMC6755642 DOI:
10.1177/1559325819876799]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/11/2019] [Accepted: 08/27/2019] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
To protect the public’s health from exposure to physical, chemical, and microbiological
agents, it is important that any policy be based on rigorous scientifically based
research. The concept of “linear no-threshold” (LNT) has been implemented to provide
guideline exposures to these agents. The practical limitation to testing this hypothesis
is to provide sufficient samples for experimental or epidemiological studies. While there
is no universally accepted understanding of most human diseases, there seems to be better
understanding of cancer that might help resolve the “LNT” model. The public’s concern,
after being exposed to radiation, is the potential of producing cancer. The most rigorous
hypothesis of human carcinogenesis is the “multistage, multimechanism” chemical
carcinogenesis model. The radiation carcinogenesis LNT model, rarely, if ever, built it
into their support. It will be argued that this multistage, multimechanism model of
carcinogenesis, involving the “initiation” of a single cell by a mutagen event, followed
by chronic exposure to threshold levels of epigenetic agents or conditions that stimulate
the clonal expansion of the “initiated” cell, can convert these benign cells to become
invasive and metastatic. This “promotion” process can be interrupted, thereby preventing
these initiated cells from transitioning to the “progression” process of invasion and
metastasis.
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