Increased risk of incident nasopharyngeal carcinoma with exposure to air pollution

Abstract

BackgroundNasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a race-specific malignancy. The nasal cavity is the main entry point for air pollutants or poisonous gases into the human body. However, the risk of NPC in populations exposed to air pollution remains unknown.MethodsWe combined data from the Taiwan Air Quality Monitoring Database (TAQMD) and the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database (LHID) to assess the risk of NPC in a population exposed to air pollution.ResultsMultivariate analysis revealed positive trends for the association between the risk of NPC and exposure to air pollution. After adjusting for potential covariates, the risk of developing NPC increased with the increase in nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) exposure concentrations from 1.39 to 2.28 and 2.01 to 1.97, respectively, compared to the risks at the lowest concentration levels.ConclusionsWe identified a significant risk of NPC in a population exposed to air pollution. However, this study had several limitations. Moreover, additional experimental and clinical studies on the associations between environmental factors and NPC risk are warranted.

Association of Ambient Air Pollution with Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Incidence in Ten Large Chinese Cities, 2006–2013

“…For every 1% increase in NO 2 concentrations, the overall NPC incidence increases by at least 1.706%, and the overall NPC incidence growth rate increases by at least 5.598%. These findings are consistent with previous studies who reported that NO 2 displayed the strongest association with NPC incidence, or CBD (Cerebrovascular Disease) and CVD (Cardiovascular Disease) mortality, as compared to SO 2 and PM 10 [2,15]. The harmful effect of indoor air pollution can support our finding from another perspective: An increased NPC risk has been found associated with daily incense burning (Adjusted OR = 2.49, 95% CI: 1.33-4.66) in women, and the adjusted OR for daily burning with good ventilation (1.35, 95% CI: 0.92-1.98) is much lower than that with poor ventilation (2.08, 95% CI: 1.02-4.24) [45].…”

Increased Risk of Sensorineural Hearing Loss as a Result of Exposure to Air Pollution

“…Several studies investigating the clinical effects of air pollution on different organ systems in the human body have been conducted [4,[7][8][9]11,53]. Using similar datasets, we have previously shown that CO and NO 2 were associated with AMD [11], dementia [53], and PD [9].…”

“…Primarily, lung cancer is considered the major severe disease caused by air pollution [1,2]. Notably, accumulating evidence shows that chronic exposure to air pollution is associated with not only respiratory diseases but also non-lung cancers [3,4] and cardiovascular [5,6], inflammatory [7,8], and neurodegenerative diseases [9,10] including age-related macular degeneration (AMD) [11].…”

Richtwerte für Stickstoffdioxid (NO2) in der Innenraumluft

“…Der Endpunkt Kanzerogenität wurde auch in epidemiologischen Studien und Metaanalysen analysiert [113][114][115][116][117]. Auch in diesen Studien ist die NO 2 -Konzentration als Marker für Verkehrsemissionen zu verstehen, so dass die zum Teil gefundenen signifikanten Assoziationen zu erhöhten NO 2 -Konzentrationen für die ursächliche Bewertung nicht herangezogen werden können.…”