Our understanding of the role of a number of carcinogens in the etiology of cancer is increasing. Coupling the later work with the importance of genetic changes in specific oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes that control cell replication and death, will present a clearer role for genotoxic carcinogens in cancer causation. The mechanisms underlying these genetic changes (metabolism, adduct formation, mutations, repair, etc.) need to be better understood so that prevention strategies can be developed and individual susceptibilities understood to ultimately lower cancer incidence. Aromatic amines have been implicated in the etiology of cancer for more than 30 years. They are associated with cigarette smoke, cooked foods, drugs, car exhaust, and other environmental sources of carcinogens. They are among the most genotoxic chemicals known and appear to induce cancer through genetic changes to the DNA. This conference will explore some of the factors making humans and animal models susceptible to cancer and mutations from these compounds. Sessions will focus on the importance of differences in metabolism in humans and in rodents, mechanisms of genetic damage (mutations), DNA and protein binding both mechanistically and as a biomonitoring method, human exposure levels, human risk estimates based on human exposures and animal cancer data, mechanisms of carcinogenesis, and chemoprevention strategies. This meeting provides the opportunity to systematically concentrate on a small subset of important chemicals resulting in an in-depth understanding of the parameters affecting mutagenicity and carcinogenicity. The complexities associated with the metabolism, DNA binding, and genotoxicity of these compounds has generated important new findings and kept top-notch scientists interested in this field for more than 3 decades. The International meeting that brings these individuals together to show new data, discuss important breakthroughs, and argue about differences in opinion has continued every 4 years for 20 years. This 6th meeting will discuss new information on heterocyclic amine concentrations in our food. It will show the usefulness of improvements to the polymerase chain reaction for measuring low frequency genetic alterations. In addition, it will demonstrate the utility of a physics tool, accelerator mass spectrometry, for measuring extremely low level DNA damage generated by aromatic amines at environmentally relevant levels. Finally, the role of genetic differences in aromatic amine metabolism will be presented with respect to its role in susceptibility to cancer. The initial letter sent to past attendees and scientists in the field has generated great interest in the conference already 15 months prior to the meeting.
