Uncombusted aflatoxin may be a causal agent or promoter of the early onset of oral malignancies, as p53 mutations have been found in tumors in proximity to the oral cavity. Aflatoxin has been shown to cause cancer in every animal model and cellular system studied, and to form adducts in the p53 tumor-suppressor gene that mutates in approximately half of all human cancers. Benzpyrene has been shown to bind to positions in codon 248, but has not been shown to target codon 249. Most recently, p53 mutations have been found in ETS lung cancer patients. These studies strongly suggest that the genetic mutations known to be associated with aflatoxin are the same mutations often associated with the use of tobacco products.
Aflatoxin is more than likely a causal agent or promoter of tobacco-associated cancers.
The advancing technology of molecular epidemiology will presumably confirm this theory in the near future, with significant repercussions for public health and the tobacco industry.