Summary

The Institut de Recherche Robert Sauvé en Santé et en Sécurité du Travail (IRSST)commissioned scientists from the University of Utrecht (in the Netherlands) and ToxicologyAdvice & Consulting Ltd (in the UK) to produce a review of selected literature on thecarcinogenicity of trichloroethylene (trichloroethene; TCE; CAS Registry Number 79-01-6).Specifically, the remit was to review the most recent 10-15 years of the literature, a period that ineffect covers the time since the most recent expert evaluation of TCE’s cancer potential by aWorking Group of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC, 1995). The presentreview focused on informative epidemiology studies published since the IARC review. Inaddition, searches were carried out to determine whether any post-IARC TCE cancer studieshave been carried out in laboratory animals.A brief overview of the knowledge database of TCE’s cancer potential (both in humans andlaboratory animals) at the time of the IARC review was also included. Available data on thelikely mechanisms that led to tumours in TCE-exposed rodents were summarised briefly, toassist in determining whether rodent tumours might be predictive of similar effects in exposedhumans.