SHORT COMMUNICATION: K-ras mutations in benzotrichloride-induced lung tumors of A/J mice

Benzotrichloride (BTC) is used extensively as a chemical intermediatein the synthesis of benzoyl chloride and benzoyl peroxide. Epidemiologkaldata suggest that BTC is a human lung carcinogen. BTC is alsoa carcinogen in the A/J mouse lung tumor bioassay. ActivatedK-ras protooncogenes were detected in BTC-induced lung tumorsfrom A/J mice. The polymerase chain reaction was used to amplifyspecific DNA segments likely to contain activating mutations,and the amplified DNAs were sequenced to identify the mutation.The activating mutation present in the K-ras gene from all BTC-inducedlung tumors (24/24) was a GC