Eye Cancer Incidence in U.S. States and Access to Fluoridated Water

Abstract

Environmental risk factors for uveal melanomas (cancer of the iris, ciliary body, and choroid) have not been identified. To search for these, we examined the correlation of age-adjusted eye cancer incidence rates, a surrogate for uveal melanoma rates, in U.S. states with group level geographic and demographic factors using multivariate linear regression. Incidence rates for eye cancer were inversely correlated with the percentage of the population receiving fluoridated water; that is, higher rates were found in states with lower prevalences of fluoridation (P ¼ 0.01). Fluoride is known to inhibit the growth of microbial agents that cause choroiditis and choroidal lesions in animals. We speculate that fluoridation protects against choroidal melanoma by inhibiting microbial agents that cause choroiditis and/or choroidal lesions in humans. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 23(9); 1707-11. Ó2014 AACR.

A bibliometric analysis of epidemiological studies investigating the relationship between community fluoridated water consumption and human cancers

“…All sites 3 [10,11,19] Digestive organs 4 [10,11,20,21] Respiratory organs 4 [10,11,19,20] Urinary organs 4 [10,11,19,20] Hormonal and/or reproductive organs 4 [10,11,19,20] Bone 8 [10,11,[13][14][15][16][17]22] Brain and nerves 3 [10,11,15] Blood and lymph 3 [11,15,19] Lip and skin 1 [11] Eye cancer 1 [18] *Some articles investigated more than 1 cancer site…”

“…[9] For example, there is an ongoing debate in the scientific community about the role of fluoridated water in cancer development in humans; and different epidemiological studies had been conducted to establish or refute this relationship. [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] While some studies reported no relationship between fluoridated water consumption and cancer occurrence, others reported a direct or an inverse relationship between them. [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] Despite the significant quantity of epidemiological studies that had investigated the relationships between community water fluoridation and human cancers, no known study has the quantity of the existing epidemiological evidence.…”

“…[10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] While some studies reported no relationship between fluoridated water consumption and cancer occurrence, others reported a direct or an inverse relationship between them. [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] Despite the significant quantity of epidemiological studies that had investigated the relationships between community water fluoridation and human cancers, no known study has the quantity of the existing epidemiological evidence. Therefore, there is a need for a bibliometric analysis of these studies.…”

Cobertura e vigilância da fluoretação da água no Brasil: municípios com mais de 50 mil habitantes

“…As taxas de incidência de câncer de olho foram inversamente correlacionadas com a porcentagem da população que recebe água fluoretada; ou seja, taxas maiores deste tipo de câncer foram encontradas em estados com menores prevalências de fluoretação. Os pesquisadores hipotetizaram que o flúor, sendo conhecido por inibir o crescimento dos agentes microbianos que causam lesões coróides e coroidites em animais, poderia estar produzindo o mesmo efeito em humanos (Schwartz 2014).…”

Eye Melanoma Diagnosis System using Statistical Texture Feature Extraction and Soft Computing Techniques

“…However, when the melanoma does not metastasize to other parts of the body, the five years’ relative survival rate is about 80%. If the melanoma metastasized to distant parts of the body, the 5 years relative survival rate will be about 15% [ 4 ].…”