Development and Possible Use of Immunological Techniques to Detect Individual Exposure to Carcinogens: International Agency for Research on Cancer/International Programme on Chemical Safety Working Group Report1

carcinogen-DNA adducts and/or carcinogens which have re cently been developed in several laboratories. Such techniques involve determination of the presence in human tissues and cells, and in body fluids, of carcinogens and carcinogen-DNA adducts. The availability of individual, as opposed to group, measure ments of human exposure to a potential carcinogen may prove critical for establishing a causal relationship between the agent and a cancer. Schematically, one may view exposure assess ment in epidemiological studies along 2 axes: complexity of exposure and level of exposure assessment. Along the first axis, exposure may vary from mixed (like atmospheric pollution) to single (like an individual pure drug). Along the second axis, the level of measurement may range from a coarse group level (e.g., consumption of tobacco as assessed by cigarette sales by geographic areas) to individual levels (e.g., the air concen tration of an inhalable chemical measured in the breathing zone of a person, or the absorbed dose of the same chemical estimated from measurements in biological fluids). The strength