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Review of Methods in the Report on Carcinogens Handbook

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The Report on Carcinogens is a congressionally mandated, science-based public health document. It is prepared by the National Toxicology Program for the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary. This cumulative report now includes 256 listings of substances that are known or reasonably anticipated to cause cancer in humans. An ad hoc committee of the National Academies will review the 2025 Report on Carcinogens Handbook on Methods for Conducting Cancer Hazard Evaluations. This Handbook includes tools, approaches, and guidance for the cancer hazard evaluation process of the Report on Carcinogens.

Open until March 26, 2026, 11:59 PM EDT
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Description

An ad hoc committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will review the Report on Carcinogens Handbook (the Handbook), with a focus on the robustness and scientific rigor of the methodology and functional utility of the Handbook. The committee will evaluate the procedures and considerations for operationalizing the principles of systematic review and evidence integration within these cancer hazard assessments, particularly the evaluation and integration of mechanistic data or new approach methodologies (NAMs). The committee will not reassess the cancer hazard evaluations of specific substances reported in Report on Carcinogen Monographs.

Aspects that will be considered during the review of the Handbook include:

1. The strengths and limitations of the methods for systematic review and evidence integration, including:

  • Application of risk of bias tools
  • Development of systematic evidence maps
  • Evaluation of mechanistic data including key characteristics of carcinogens and NAMs
  • Integration of mechanistic, human, and animal data evidence streams
  • Data delivery, accessibility, and presentation.

2. The extent to which the tools and processes:

  • Align with scientific best practices and advances in evidence evaluation
  • Promote reproducibility and transparency
  • Are flexible and responsive to technological and methodological innovations (e.g., AI-assisted review tools).

Recommendations will be prioritized as follows:

  • Tier 1 – Recommended revisions to improve critical scientific concepts and issues, transparency, rigor, accessibility, consistency of the methods and, ultimately, confidence in the conclusions
  • Tier 2 – Suggested revisions that are encouraged to strengthen or clarify methodological application, broaden utility, heighten confidence in the approach and conclusions, and improve readability
  • Tier 3 - Considerations for future development, including research needs (but not substances to evaluate in future assessments), opportunities to pilot new methods and assure alignment with broader systematic review frameworks, and opportunities to improve throughput and data dissemination

Contributors

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Staff Officer

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Give feedback on committee Open until March 26, 2026

Comment on Provisional Committee Appointments

Viewers may communicate with the National Academies at any time over the project's duration. In addition, formal comments on the provisional appointments to a committee of the National Academies are solicited during the 20-calendar day period following the posting of the membership and, as described below, these comments will be considered before committee membership is finalized. We welcome your comments (Use the Feedback link below). Please note that the appointments made to this committee are provisional, and changes may be made. No appointment shall be considered final until we have evaluated relevant information bearing on the committee's composition and balance. This information will include the confidential written disclosures to The National Academies by each member-designate concerning potential sources of bias and conflict of interest pertaining to his or her service on the committee; information from discussion of the committee's composition and balance that is conducted in closed session at its first event and again whenever its membership changes; and any public comments that we have received on the membership during the 20-calendar day formal public comment period. If additional members are appointed to this committee, an additional 20-calendar day formal public comment period will be allowed. It is through this process that we determine whether the committee contains the requisite expertise to address its task and whether the points of views of individual members are adequately balanced such that the committee as a whole can address its charge objectively.

Sponsors

NIEHS via Black Canyon Consulting, LLC

Staff

Kate Guyton

Lead

Elizabeth Boyle

Thomasina Lyles

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