It was discovered that in reality the asbestos itself is not a mutagen, but is able to promote self-phosphorylation of ‘ EGFR activating the path proliferative RAS – MAP kinase . Then the crystalline forms also contain iron (crocidolite) are able to catalyze the synthesis of reactive oxygen species that are carcinogenic.
Other studies also show a role of the virus SV40 , which seems to have had 2 antigens involved in tumorigenesis: a nuclear antigen (small t antigen) can promote cell cycle progression by stimulating certain kinases and a larger antigen, (the large T antigen) able to facilitate the creation of mutations and expression of growth factor IGF-1 . In addition, both these proteins seem to be able to repress several genes Tumor suppressor genes .