Quantitative mechanistically based dose-response modeling with endocrine-active compounds.

A wide range of toxicity test methods is used or is being developed for assessing the impact of endocrine-active compounds (EACs) on human health. Interpretation of these data and their quantitative use in human and ecologic risk assessment will be enhanced by the availability of mechanistically based dose-response (MBDR) models to assist low-dose, interspecies, and (italic)in vitro(/italic) to (italic)in vivo(/italic) extrapolations. A quantitative dose-response modeling work group examined the state of the art for developing MBDR models for EACs and the near-term needs to develop, validate, and apply these models for risk assessments. Major aspects of this report relate to current status of these models, the objectives/goals in MBDR model development for EACs, low-dose extrapolation issues, regulatory inertia impeding acceptance of these approaches, and resource/data needs to accelerate model development and model acceptance by the research and the regulatory community.