Should knowledge of the AR affect current risk assessment methods for carcinogens?
Due to the low statistical reliability of experimental and epidemiological data already published, it cannot be concluded whether or not a threshold dose below which no increase in the frequency of cancer is observed. Thus, the low dose effects are currently estimated by extrapolation of high dose data. The assumption of a linear dose effect relationship for the low dose range is questionable after considering the current data concerning carcinogenesis by chemicals as well as radiation17. The existence of low dose effects such as the AR and the HRS/IRR phenomenon evoked before, show evidence for responses unpredictable from high dose experiments. In other words, both infra and supra-linear dose-response relationships might be expected, as has been previously reviewed16. This also raises the question as to whether or not a threshold dose would exist for cells to react to changes of damage following low-level exposure by inducing some protective mechanisms. Mutations as well as chromosom
