IARC Advisory Group Recommends Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes as High Priority

An International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) Advisory Group met on April 7-9, 2014, to recommend priorities for IARC Monographs during 2015-2019. The Advisory Group assessed the responses to a call for nominations and recommended a range of agents and exposures as high or medium priorities for assessment. According to the recommendations published in Lancet Oncology, multi-walled carbon nanotubes are a high priority for assessment — “cancer bioassay data are available from intraperitoneal injection studies, inhalation studies are ongoing; mechanistic similarities with asbestos have been noted.” IARC’s preliminary list of agents to be reviewed at its September 30-October 7, 2014, meeting includes “carbon nanotubes.”