DNA-ADDUCTS, MUTATIONS AND CANCER

Anyone having lectured on DNA adducts is likely to be familiar with the first question after the presentation: 'What is the relationship of DNA adducts and cancer?'. Although there are a number of reviews on the topic (1-5), my personal response, instead of going into lengthy circumstantial argumentation and hand-waving, has been a quotation from Mortimer Mendelson: 'I wouldn't like to have my DNA messed up'. In this commentary I will indulge in this still circumstantial argumentation. The reason being that never before has it appeared to be so easy, or less difficult, to entertain the question. Hopefully this effort will spare colleagues confronting the same question some time. At the same time I will take the opportunity to describe developments in the identification of DNA adducts. A vivid history of the development of ideas on chemical causes of cancer has been published by Lawley (2).