Dataset Information

Serum levels of environmental pollutants is a risk factor for breast cancer in Inuit: a case control study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Environmental Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) can alter the hormone homeostasis by mimicking, interfering or blocking the function of hormones; moreover POPs are hypothesized to modify the risk of breast cancer. The association between POPs and breast cancer has been widely studied but the conclusions are inconsistent. The present study examined the associations between serum levels of POPs and breast cancer with focus on the highly exposed Greenlandic Inuit population.

Methods

The study design was a case-control study of Inuit women from Greenland. The participants were asked to complete a questionnaire with information on reproductive history and lifestyle and to provide a blood sample. The sampling was carried out in two time periods (2000-2003 and 2011-2014). The serum levels were determined of 14 polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), 11 organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), 16 perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs), 1 polybrominated biphenyl (PBB), and 9 polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs). Independent samples t-test was used to compare differences between cases and controls and odds ratios (OR) adjusted for identified confounders were obtained using logistic regression.

Results

The study population included 77 breast cancer cases and 84 controls. The majority of the measured compounds declined significantly from 2000 - 2003 to 2011-2014. However, for the perfluorinated carboxylic acids (PFCAs) an increase was observed. The serum levels were significantly higher in cases compared to controls for the majority of the compounds, and after adjusting for age the difference was maintained for ?OCP, dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (p,p'-DDE), ?PFAA, ?perfluorinated sulfonic acids (PFSA), perfluorohexane sulfonate (PFHxS), and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS). For the lipophilic POPs, high serum levels (middel/highest vs. lowest tertile) of ?PCB, ?estrgoenicPCB, PCB99, PCB138, PCB153, PCB170, PCB170, and PCB183 was associated with breast cancer risk; for the amphiphilic PFAAs, high serum levels of ?PFAA, ?PFCA, ?PFSA, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA), perfluorodecanoic acid (PFDA), PFHxS, and PFOS were associated with breast cancer risk.

Conclusion

Significant, positive associations between breast cancer risk and PCBs and PFAAs were observed. The associations indicate that environmental exposure to POPs can be a factor increasing the risk for breast cancer in Inuit women.

SUBMITTER: Wielsoe M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5470290 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Serum levels of environmental pollutants is a risk factor for breast cancer in Inuit: a case control study.

Wielsøe Maria M Kern Peder P Bonefeld-Jørgensen Eva Cecilie EC

Environmental health : a global access science source 20170613 1

<h4>Background</h4>Environmental Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) can alter the hormone homeostasis by mimicking, interfering or blocking the function of hormones; moreover POPs are hypothesized to modify the risk of breast cancer. The association between POPs and breast cancer has been widely studied but the conclusions are inconsistent. The present study examined the associations between serum levels of POPs and breast cancer with focus on the highly exposed Greenlandic Inuit population.<h ...[more]

PMID: 28610584

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Project description:Aim and backgroundEnvironmental exposures are known to play a role in the development of cancer, including breast cancer. There are known associations of breast cancer with environmental factors such as sunlight exposure, diet and exercise and alcohol consumption as well as physiological factors. This study examines the prevalence of risk factors for breast cancer related to dietary intake, environment and lifestyle in the female population of Malta. Malta has had little research in this area, and therefore an exploratory study was carried out.MethodsA retrospective case-control design was applied. Two hundred cases and 403 controls were included. Both cases and controls were subjects without a known family history for breast cancer. Controls were age-matched to cases in an age-decade category roughly at a 2:1 ratio. Interviews were carried out face-to-face using a questionnaire designed by Maltese and Sicilian researchers, encompassing various factors including diet, lifestyle, physiological factors and medical history. Breast cancer risk was then analysed using both univariate and multivariate analyses. For factors having a metric scale, the Mann-Whitney test was used to compare mean scores, while for categorical factors, the chi-square test was used to compare percentages between the case and control groups. Statistical modelling was carried out using binary logistic regression to relate the likelihood of breast cancer to over 50 risk/protective factors analysed collectively.ResultsUnivariate analysis showed around 20 parameters of interest, 14 of which were statistically significant at a 0.05 level of significance. Logistic regression analysis identified 11 predictors of interest that were statistically significant. Tomato, coffee and canned meat consumption were associated with lower likelihood of breast cancer (OR?=?0.988, 0.901, 0.892, respectively), whereas beans and cabbage consumption and low sodium salt were positively associated with breast cancer (OR?=?1.045, 1.834, 1.028, respectively). Premenopausal status was associated with a lower risk of breast cancer compared to postmenopausal status (OR?=?0.067). Not having experienced myocardial infarction was associated with lower odds of breast cancer (OR?=?0.331). Increased height was also found to have a strong association with risk of breast cancer, with the odds of having breast cancer increasing for every centimetre increase in height (OR?=?1.048). In terms of quantity, odds of having breast cancer were lower in those exposed to sunlight (OR?=?0.891). The odds of having breast cancer were also lower in those not using the oral contraceptive pill (OR?=?0.454).ConclusionsVarious factors in this exploratory study were found to be associated with development of breast cancer. While causal conclusions cannot be made, tomato consumption is of particular interest, as these results corroborate findings found in other studies. A negative association of breast cancer with sunlight exposure and oral contraceptive pill use corroborates findings in other studies. Other associations with dietary intake can be explained by dietary changes. More robust studies in this area, including possible longitudinal studies, are warranted.

Project description:ObjectiveA growing body of evidence suggests that environmental pollutants, such as heavy metals, persistent organic pollutants and plasticizers play an important role in the development of chronic diseases. Most epidemiologic studies have examined environmental pollutants individually, but in real life, we are exposed to multi-pollutants and pollution mixtures, not single pollutants. Although multi-pollutant approaches have been recognized recently, challenges exist such as how to estimate the risk of adverse health responses from multi-pollutants. We propose an "Environmental Risk Score (ERS)" as a new simple tool to examine the risk of exposure to multi-pollutants in epidemiologic research.Methods and resultsWe examined 134 environmental pollutants in relation to serum lipids (total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL) and triglycerides) using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 1999 and 2006. Using a two-stage approach, stage-1 for discovery (n = 10818) and stage-2 for validation (n = 4615), we identified 13 associated pollutants for total cholesterol, 9 for HDL, 5 for LDL and 27 for triglycerides with adjustment for sociodemographic factors, body mass index and serum nutrient levels. Using the regression coefficients (weights) from joint analyses of the combined data and exposure concentrations, ERS were computed as a weighted sum of the pollutant levels. We computed ERS for multiple lipid outcomes examined individually (single-phenotype approach) or together (multi-phenotype approach). Although the contributions of ERS to overall risk predictions for lipid outcomes were modest, we found relatively stronger associations between ERS and lipid outcomes than with individual pollutants. The magnitudes of the observed associations for ERS were comparable to or stronger than those for socio-demographic factors or BMI.ConclusionsThis study suggests ERS is a promising tool for characterizing disease risk from multi-pollutant exposures. This new approach supports the need for moving from a single-pollutant to a multi-pollutant framework.

Dataset Information

Serum levels of environmental pollutants is a risk factor for breast cancer in Inuit: a case control study.

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusion

Publications

Serum levels of environmental pollutants is a risk factor for breast cancer in Inuit: a case control study.

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