Electronic Configuration and Carcinogenesis

Abstract

Publisher Summary The relationship between electronic configuration and carcinogenesis falls into six sections that include historical survey, the quantum-mechanical resonance method of describing large unsaturated molecules, the alternative molecular orbital method, numerical applications of these two methods, possible mechanisms of carcinogenic activity, and conclusions. There is a certain region, the K region, in a condensed polycyclic molecule, which by virtue of a high concentration of π electrons, is able to possess carcinogenic power. Various arguments have accepted the origin of this power as lying in the π-electron distribution, but they have differed in the particular combination of derived quantities (bond order, net charge, free valence, the energy of excitation, and resonance energy) with which a correlation is sought. The total charge on the K-region, coupled with a relatively high bond order, plays a significant part in the activity of the carcinogen.