Aberrant Crypt Foci System to Study Cancer Preventive Agents in the Colon: Principles and Guidelines

Knowledge of the actual active substances that act to initiate or modulate carcinogenests in humans is limited. The past two decades have been dedicated to the discovery of environmental factors including constituents of our diet that may be carcinogenic or modulators of carcinogenic process. Recent emphasis has been on the identification of cancer preventive agents. In this regard, animal models have been most useful. They are intensively used in the identification of the initiators and modulators of carcinogenesis as well as in the elucidation of the mechanism(s) of their action.