TY - JOUR
T1 - Critical reviews of exposure assessment in carcinogenic hazard identification
T2 - the IARC Monographs experience
AU - Middleton, Daniel R S
AU - Wedekind, Roland
AU - Hall, Amy L
AU - Suonio, Eero
AU - DeBono, Nathan
AU - Vermeulen, Roel
AU - Fritschi, Lin
AU - Stewart, Patricia A
AU - Schubauer-Berigan, Mary K
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2024. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - OBJECTIVES: To summarise the rationale, workflow and recommendations for the conduct of exposure assessment critiques in key human studies evaluated for International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)
Monographs on the Identification of Carcinogenic Hazards.
METHODS: Approaches to evaluating exposure assessment quality in human cancer and mechanistic studies were reviewed according to the precepts outlined in the IARC
Monographs Preamble, using two agents as case studies. Exposure assessment 'domains', that is, salient aspects of exposure assessment for the agent under evaluation, were selected for review across the key human studies.
RESULTS: The case studies of night shift work (volume 124) and 1,1,1-trichloroethane (volume 130) used a common approach, tailored to the agents' specific exposure scenarios, to evaluate exposure assessment quality. Based on the experiences of IARC Working Groups to date, the implementation of exposure assessment critique requires the need for agent-specific knowledge, consideration of the validity of time-varying exposure metrics related to duration and intensity, and transparent, concise reviews that prioritise the most important strengths and limitations of exposure assessment methods used in human studies.CONCLUSIONS: Exposure assessment has not historically been a fully appreciated component for evaluating the quality of epidemiological studies in cancer hazard identification. Exposure assessment critique in key human cancer and mechanistic studies is now an integral part of IARC
Monographs evaluations and its conduct will continue to evolve as new agents are evaluated. The approaches identified here should be considered as a potential framework by others when evaluating the exposure assessment component of epidemiological studies for systematic reviews.
AB - OBJECTIVES: To summarise the rationale, workflow and recommendations for the conduct of exposure assessment critiques in key human studies evaluated for International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)
Monographs on the Identification of Carcinogenic Hazards.
METHODS: Approaches to evaluating exposure assessment quality in human cancer and mechanistic studies were reviewed according to the precepts outlined in the IARC
Monographs Preamble, using two agents as case studies. Exposure assessment 'domains', that is, salient aspects of exposure assessment for the agent under evaluation, were selected for review across the key human studies.
RESULTS: The case studies of night shift work (volume 124) and 1,1,1-trichloroethane (volume 130) used a common approach, tailored to the agents' specific exposure scenarios, to evaluate exposure assessment quality. Based on the experiences of IARC Working Groups to date, the implementation of exposure assessment critique requires the need for agent-specific knowledge, consideration of the validity of time-varying exposure metrics related to duration and intensity, and transparent, concise reviews that prioritise the most important strengths and limitations of exposure assessment methods used in human studies.CONCLUSIONS: Exposure assessment has not historically been a fully appreciated component for evaluating the quality of epidemiological studies in cancer hazard identification. Exposure assessment critique in key human cancer and mechanistic studies is now an integral part of IARC
Monographs evaluations and its conduct will continue to evolve as new agents are evaluated. The approaches identified here should be considered as a potential framework by others when evaluating the exposure assessment component of epidemiological studies for systematic reviews.
KW - Environmental Exposure
KW - Epidemiology
KW - Occupational Health
KW - Toxicology
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85199535817&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1136/oemed-2023-109277
DO - 10.1136/oemed-2023-109277
M3 - Article
C2 - 39033030
SN - 1351-0711
VL - 81
SP - 366
EP - 372
JO - Occupational and Environmental Medicine
JF - Occupational and Environmental Medicine
IS - 7
ER -