ABSTRACT
Carcinogenesis represents one of the special subsets of toxicologic adverse effects in skin. Light-induced toxicity has long been recognized as an important clinical concept; the principal target organs are skin and eye. For many years chemicals were confirmed as carcinogens in animals after having first been associated with human neoplasia. Carcinogenesis testing in skin presents both special complexities and unique opportunities to identify active agents and mechanisms of effect. The formative years of quantitative research in experimental photocarcinogenesis are associated with Harold Blum and his associates at the US National Institutes of Health and subsequently at Princeton University. The photocarcinogenesis safety test is a laboratory study involving repeated intercurrent exposures to simulated sunlight and a test article. The test determines whether a product influences the time required for the known carcinogen to produce skin cancer in a well-characterized animal model system.
