The Carcinogenic Effects of 6-aminochrysene Administered to Newborn Mice

In 1937, Haddow and Robinson showed that chrysene – a polycyclic hydrocarbon which is weakly carcinogenic – decreased the rate of growth of the Jensen sarcoma and the Walker carcinosarcoma in rats. Some years later, Lacassagne et al. (1945) reported that chrysene produced 'weak but definite' inhibition of the carcinogenic activity of 20-methylcholanthrene, measured by the induction of epithelial skin tumours in mice. These results suggested that modification of the chemical structure of chrysene might boost its inhibitory activity and reduce or eliminate its weak carcinogenicity; and in 1953, Rudali et al. described the properties of an amino derivative, 6-aminochrysene (Fig. 1).