Polychlorinated Biphenyl Levels in Peripheral Blood and Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma: A Report from Three Cohorts

Abstract

The incidence of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) unrelated to HIV infection has steadily increased over the past several decades and remains substantially unexplained. Limited evidence suggests that increased concentrations of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) measured in blood or fat tissue are associated with increased risk of NHL. Although PCB congeners vary in their biological activity, the relation between individual congeners and NHL risk has not been examined previously using prospectively collected biospecimens. We examined congener-specific associations in three prospective cohorts. Prediagnostic serum or plasma concentrations of selected PCB congeners were measured among NHL cases and controls from these cohorts: Janus (190 cases and 190 controls) in Norway and CLUE I (74 cases and 147 controls) and the Nurses' Health Study (30 cases and 78 controls) in the United States. All blood samples were collected in the 1970s or 1980s. We used logistic regression to calculate odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) for the relations between risk of NHL and lipidcorrected plasma or serum concentrations. Several congeners (i.e., 118, 138, and 153) that were present at higher levels and were moderately to highly correlated with each other showed exposure-response trends with risk of NHL in all three cohorts. These associations were observed primarily among subjects diagnosed closer to the date of blood collection in the two cohorts with sufficient cases to permit stratification by time. Among cases diagnosed within the median years of follow-up (16 years in Janus and 12 years in CLUE I), ORs and 95% CIs for increasing fourths of concentration of congener 118 relative to the lowest fourth were as follows: 2.4 (0.9-6.5), 4.9 (1.6-15.3), and 5.3 (1.5-18.8) (P trend < 0.005) in Janus and 8.1 (1.0-68.9), 6.6 (0.7-59.0), and 13.0 (1.6-106.8) (P trend < 0.05) in CLUE I. Similar patterns were seen for congeners 138 and 153 and for total PCBs. Limited evidence of exposure-response trends was also observed for several other congeners. The primary 1,1,1-trichloro-2,2-bis(p-chlorophenyl)ethane metabolite, p,p ¶-DDE, was not significantly associated with NHL in most analyses but slightly to moderately confounded the PCB associations. The results from these three cohorts suggest that concentrations of certain PCBs in blood are associated with increased risk of NHL. [Cancer Res 2007;67(11):5545-52]

Persistent organic pollutants distribution in lipoprotein fractions in relation to cardiovascular disease and cancer

“…These results indicate a link between POPs in HDL and CVD as well as between POPs in LDL and cancer. Such associations might be potentially important to understand why CVD and cancer are related to increased plasma concentrations of POPs (Engel et al 2007;Hardell et al 2006;Lind et al 2012;Sergeev & Carpenter 2010). In general, HDL is believed to have a protective role in CVD partly mediated through the reversed cholesterol transport in which HDL deliver excess cholesterol to the hepatocytes for further excretion.…”

“…POPs, as defined by the Stockholm Convention, hosted by the United Nations Environment Programme (www.unep.org), include polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dioxins, organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) as well as polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) (Wikoff et al 2012). Several studies have found associations between increased serum or plasma concentrations of POPs and an increased risk for negative health effects in the general population, including cardiovascular disease (CVD) Sergeev and Carpenter 2010), diabetes (Faerch et al 2012;Lee et al 2011) and cancer (Engel et al 2007;Hardell et al 2006). The causal association between POPs and cancer has however been questioned (Golden and Kimbrough 2009).…”

Obesity and Cancer: What’s the Interconnection?

“…It has been found that most affected types of cancers with chemical carcinogens are prostate cancer and lymphoma. Obese and non-obese persons are affected by these chemical carcinogens due to the existence of the adipose tissue in both cases, with a higher extent in the former than in the latter [63].…”

Increased risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma and serum organochlorine concentrations among neighbors of a municipal solid waste incinerator

“…For four pesticide analytes (trans-nonachlor, cis-nonachlor, o,p'-DDT, and mirex), four PCDF congeners (1,2,3,7,8-P 5 CDF, 1,2,3,7,8,9-H 6 CDF, 1,2,3,4,6,7,8-H 7 CDF, and 1,2,3,4,7,8,9-H 7 CDF), and three NDL-PCBs (28, 52, 101), fewer than 50% of the samples had levels above the limit of quantification (LOQ). Following Engel et al (2007), these compounds were not considered to minimize any distortion of exposure measurement due to high proportions of input values.…”

“…Dioxinlike (DL) PCBs exhibit similar toxicologic properties as dioxins through their potential to bind to the arylhydrocarbon receptor, whereas non dioxin-like (NDL) PCBs elicit biological responses that are primarily mediated through other pathways such as immunosuppression (Safe, 1993). Several studies have suggested a role for PCBs in the development of NHL (Hardell et al, 1996;Rothman et al, 1997;Engel et al, 2007).…”