Self-reported residential pesticide use and survival after breast cancer

Abstract

Introduction: Previous investigations found elevated mortality after breast cancer in association with biomarkers of persistent organochlorine pesticides in non-occupationally exposed women. We hypothesized that lifetime residential pesticide use, which includes persistent and non-persistent pesticides, would also be associated with increased mortality after breast cancer. Methods: A population-based cohort of 1505 women with invasive or in situ breast cancer was interviewed in 1996-1997, shortly after diagnosis, about pre-diagnostic lifetime residential pesticide use. Participants were followed for mortality through 2014 (595 deaths from any cause and 236 from breast cancer, after 17.6 years of follow-up). Pesticides were examined as 15 individual categories; a group of seven used for lawn and garden purposes; a group of eight used for nuisance-pest purposes; and all combined. Cox regression was used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for all-cause and breast cancer-specific mortality. Modification by estrogen receptor (ER) status, body mass index, and long-term residence was examined. Results: Ever use (HR = 0.77, 95%CI = 0.63-0.95) and higher lifetime applications (4th quartile: HR = 0.62, 95%CI = 0.47-0.81, p trend = 0.3) of the lawn and garden group of pesticides were inversely associated with allcause mortality, compared to never use. The inverse association for lawn and garden pesticide use was limited to ER positive (vs. negative) tumors (p interaction = 0.05). Nuisance-pest pesticides, and all groups combined, were not associated with all-cause or breast cancer-specific mortality. Conclusions: Contrary to our hypothesis, lifetime residential use of lawn and garden pesticides, but not all combined or nuisance-pest pesticides, was inversely associated with all-cause mortality after breast cancer.

Exposures to pesticides and risk of cancer: Evaluation of recent epidemiological evidence in humans and paths forward

“…In the initial PubMed searches 165 articles published between 2017 and 2021 were found. After exclusion at various phases as explained above, 63 articles 19,61,64‐124 were included in the final literature sample (Figure 1).…”

“…A slightly larger proportion of reports looked at agricultural exposures (including residences near farms). Only six (9.5%) of the reviewed studies specifically assessed residential pesticide use 78,100,105,107,109,121 . About 16% of the studies used prospectively measured biomarkers 19,82,86‐88,90‐93,124 (Table 1).…”

“…It also reported an increased risk of 20‐year conditional breast cancer‐specific mortality among women overall (HR = 1.69), higher for black women (2.36), than for white women (1.57; Table 6). Concentrations in adipose tissue of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and organochlorine pesticides were not associated with NHL survival 121 …”

“…Less than 8% of the studies assessed whether varying levels of pesticide exposure influenced differences in survival among patients with cancer (Tables 5 and 6). [121][122][123][124] About 10% of the studies assessed prenatal and childhood exposures and the development of cancer in children, while the adult studies typically studied populations in their 50s and 60s. Thirty percent of the studies included only women, 5% of the studies included only men, and 65% of the studies lumped together both genders; several of the latter were occupational studies, which had a large proportion of males.…”

Determination of common organophosphorus pesticides in the blood of children with acute leukaemia using a double-solvent system as a novel extractant for dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction

“…1 Contact with pesticides can cause symptoms such as intoxication in the short term and complications such as neurological problems and cancers in the long term. 2 Due to the widespread use of pesticides and the spread of toxic particles, issues such as the general health of people, especially children and infants, are raised even if they are not directly exposed to them. Studies show that children are more prone to being affected by toxin residues due to physiological deciencies and rapid organ development.…”