COMMENT: The threshold vs “linear no-threshold” (LNT) showdown: Dose rate findings exposed flaws in the LNT model part 2. How a mistake led BEIR I to adopt LNT

Dan:

Thought your chat group might be interested in this 2009 study with dibenzo[def,p]chrysene (dibenzo[a,l]pyrene), a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) in 40,000 rainbow trout [see attached 2nd pdf].  We were able to statistically calculate the dose resulting in 1 cancer in 5000 animals, a 50-fold increase in power compared to the 2-acetylaminofluorene ED01 mouse study.

The dose response became sub-linear with dose, and the intercept on the x-axis for 1/106 tumors was more than 1000-fold higher than if the linear extrapolated dose (LED10) had been used.  Surprisingly, the liver DNA adducts remained linear with dose (would not have made for a good biomarker).

I was surprised that this paper did not generate more interest.  Maybe because it (“was only a fish”).  George Bailey spent years documenting the validity (and superiority of fish to mice), with regard to aflatoxin B1 (AFB1)-induced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) as a model for human liver cancer.  I repeated the same design –– later with AFB1 –– and that also generated a dose-response that became sub-linear, compared to the LED, but the data were not as dramatically as that for the PAH.

For what its worth,

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