Genotoxicity refers to the ability of harmful substances to damage genetic information in cells. Being exposed to chemical and biological agents can result in genomic instabilities and/or epigenetic alterations, which translate into a variety of diseases, cancer included. This concise review discusses, from both a genetic and epigenetic point of view, the current detection methods of different agents' genotoxicity, along with their basic and clinical relation to human cancer, chemotherapy, germ cells and stem cells.
Keywords: Comet assay; Epigenetics; Genetic toxicology; Genotoxicity; Germ cells; In-vivo testing; Stem cells; The Ames assay.