Prenatal susceptibility to carcinogenesis by xenobiotic substances including vinyl chloride.

The carcinogenicity of vinyl chloride for experimental animals when administered transplacentally is reviewed in comparison with known transplacental carcinogens, including those that, like vinyl chloride, are dependent on enzyme-mediated metabolic conversion to a reactive intermediate in maternal or fetal tissues. Vinyl chloride is converted by mixed-function oxidases to the reactive metabolite chlorooxirane, the carcinogenicity of which is also reviewed. Vinyl chloride is unequivocally a transplacental carcinogen for the rat. No evidence exists, however, to support the hypothesis that exposure of male rats to vinyl chloride or any other carcinogen confers an increased risk of tumor development on their progeny. Many structural analogs of vinyl chloride, i.e., substituted ethylenes, are also carcinogenic for adult animals, and can with confidence likewise be predicted to be effective transplacental carcinogens.