Air pollution and risk of urinary bladder cancer in a case-control study in Spain

Gemma Castaño-Vinyals ^1*, Kenneth P Cantor ², Nuria Malats ¹, Adonina Tardón ³, Reina Garcia-Closas ⁴, Consol Serra ⁵, Alfredo Carrato ⁶, Nathaniel Rothman ², Roel Vermeulen ², Debra Silverman ², Mustafa Dosemeci ² and Manolis Kogevinas ¹

¹ CREAL, Municipal Institute of Medical Research, Spain
² Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, United States
³ Universidad de Oviedo, Spain
⁴ Unidad de Investigacion, Hospital Universitario de Canarias, Spain
⁵ Consorci Hospitalari Parc Tauli, Spain
⁶ Hospital General de Elche, Spain

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: gcastano{at}imim.es.

Accepted 6 July 2007

Abstract

Objectives. Air pollution has been associated with an increased risk for lung cancer. We examined whether long term air pollution is associated with bladder cancer risk. Methods. Information from a case-control study in Spain that included 1219 incident cases and 1271 hospital controls was used. Information on residential history including several indicators of exposure to air pollution and to other potential risk factors was collected in a face-to-face computerized personal interview. Odds Ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were adjusted for age, gender, region, smoking, occupation, water contaminants and diet. Results. Living more than 40 years in a city with more than 100,000 population was associated with an increased risk for bladder cancer overall (OR=1.30, CI 1.04-1.63). Emissions of PAHs and diesel from industries near the residence, as evaluated by experts, were associated with an increased risk (OR=1.29, 0.85-1.98), while lower or no excess risks were observed for other pollution-related variables. Odds ratios among never-smokers tended to be higher than those of smokers. Conclusions. The small to moderate positive associations found for several indices of air-pollution and bladder cancer, while suggestive of excess risk, require further evaluation in other settings.

Keywords: air pollution, case-control studies, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, retrospective exposure assessment, urinary bladder neoplasms

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