Species correlation in long-term carcinogenicity studies

Species correlation in neoplastic response was examined for 266 long-term toxicology and carcinogenicity studies. The overall concordance between rats and mice exposed to the same chemical was 74% (198/266). Within a species, the results for males and females were also highly correlated (87% concordance for rats and 89% for mice). Had only male rats and female mice been utilized in these experiments, the same conclusions regarding carcinogenicity would have been reached in 96% of the studies (255/266). The high interspecies correlation shown in these studies supports the view that extrapolation of carcinogenicity outcomes to other species, including humans, is appropriate.