Commentary on the application of (Q)SAR to the toxicological evaluation of existing chemicals

For ethical and financial reasons it is impossible to perform thorough toxicological testing for all of the more than 100.000 substances registered in the European Inventory of Existing Substances. It was therefore investigated whether the application of (quantitative) structure-activity relationships (QSAR) with commercially available computer programs could predict the toxicologal profile and help identify those substances requiring priority toxicological testing. Whereas predictions with respect to complex endpoints such as carcinogenicity, chronic toxicity and teratogenicity are still disappointing, more reliable predictions should be forthcoming in the immediate future for sensitisation, mutagenicity and genotoxicity endpoints.