Mini-review of studies on the carcinogenicity of deoxynivalenol

The purpose of this article is to make a summary of the information regarding the researches on the carcinogenicity of DON and to discuss implications on future researches. Publications of experiments were collected through databases, experts, previous reviews, citation tracking. To guarantee the quality of the studies included in this review, we set up different criteria for different kinds of studies. As a result, all three gene mutation assays had negative results; all four chromosome aberration tests had positive results, even one of which had a dose–response effect; six from ten DNA damage/repair tests had positive results and tow of those six ones had dose–response effects; one mammalian cell malignant transformation assay showed positive result; two from three medium-term and long-term carcinogenicity studies had negative results; all six epidemiologic studies had positive results.In conclusion, DON cannot be classified as carcinogen according to these tests and studies because the results from the short-term in vitro studies were quite contradictory, and the results from the medium-term and long-term in vivo studies and from the epidemiological studies in humane beings were invalid due to their poor methodology quality. It is necessary to make more and better researches on the carcinogenicity of DON considering its chronic and low level of exposure to the human beings.