ABSTRACT
Organic chemists looked toward structure-activity relationships (SAR). The most widely known and practically reliable short-term in vitro geno-toxicity bioassay is the Ames test. A chemist could determine the molecular structure and know immediately if the compound could cause cancer. SAR is a potentially useful predictive tool for cancer risk assessment but, to date, has had limited impact. In vitro tests can show that a chemical has the potential to initiate a process leading to cancer, but this is only requirement for the chemical actually to produce an increase in cancer in live animals. The chemical to be tested is then administered to the animal and sometime later, samples of the test organism are taken and tested for mutation. The performance of the bioassays can be tested by comparing them with the results of long-term animal bioassays.
