Induction of Human Squamous Cell-Type Carcinomas by Arsenic.pdfVIP

Hindawi Publishing Corporation Journal of Skin Cancer Volume 2011, Article ID 454157, 9 pages doi:10.1155/2011/454157 Review Article Induction of Human Squamous Cell-Type Carcinomas by Arsenic Victor D. Martinez, Daiana D. Becker-Santos, Emily A. Vucic, Stephen Lam, and Wan L. Lam Department of Integrative Oncology, BC Cancer Research Centre, 675 West 10th Avenue, Vancouver, BC, Canada V5Z 1L3 Correspondence should be addressed to Victor D. Martinez, vmartinez@bccrc.ca Received 2 August 2011; Accepted 7 October 2011 Academic Editor: Daniela Massi Copyright © 2011 Victor D. Martinez et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Arsenic is a potent human carcinogen. Around one hundred million people worldwide have potentially been exposed to this metalloid at concentrations considered unsafe. Exposure occurs generally through drinking water from natural geological sources, making it difficult to control this contamination. Arsenic biotransformation is suspected to have a role in arsenic-related health effects ranging from acute toxicities to development of malignancies associated with chronic exposure. It has been demonstrated that arsenic exhibits preference for induction of squamous cell carcinomas in the human, especially skin and lung cancer. Interestingly, keratins emerge as a relevant factor in this arsenic-related squamous cell-type preference. Additionally, both genomic and epigenomic alterations have been associated with arsenic-driven neoplastic process. Some of these aberrations, as well as changes in other factors such as keratins, could explain the association be