Investigation of fatty acids and derivatives for carcinogenic activity.

whether the well-known fatty acids, the nutritional qualities and safety of which are taken for granted, have any car cinogenic effects. Not only are we interested in the carcinogenicity of oxidation products as described above, but, perhaps more important, we are searching for functional group-biological activity relationships. In this paper we report a preliminary study of the carcinogenicity of 4 groups of compounds to determine their possible carcinogenicity when administered s.c. in mice. The results are not entirely clear and admittedly are only preliminary. Nevertheless, publication was con sidered desirable at this time because of the interest in these environmental factors and to provide information of possible value to other investigators. Dickens et a!. (6—11) and Van Duuren et a!. (28, 30) have published studies on the carcinogenicity of epoxides, lactones, and peroxy compounds. Most of the compounds described in the current study had not been reported at the time we began our investigation.