Animal models of chemical carcinogenesis: driving breakthroughs in cancer research for 100 years

摘要

Chemical carcinogenesis studies in animals have directly contributed to a reduction of cancer burden in the human population through their ability to identify carcinogens from the workplace, diet, and environment. Reduced exposure to these carcinogens through lifestyle changes, government regulation, or change in industry practices has reduced cancer incidence in exposed populations. In addition to providing the first experimental evidence for the link between chemical and radiation exposure and cancer, animal models of environmentally induced cancer have and will continue to provide important insight into the causes, mechanisms, and conceptual frameworks of cancer. More recently, combining chemical carcinogens with genetically engineered mouse models (GEMMs) has emerged as an invaluable approach to study the complex interaction between genotype and environment that contributes to cancer development. In the future, animal models of environmentally induced cancer are likely to provide insight into areas such as the epigenetic basis of cancer, genetic modifiers of cancer susceptibility, the systems biology of cancer, inflammation and cancer, and cancer prevention.