Occupational exposure to organic solvents and breast cancer in women

Peplonska, Beata; Stewart, Patricia; Szeszenia-Dąbrowska, Neonila; Lissowska, Jolanta; Brinton, Louise A; Gromiec, Jan Piotr; Brzeznicki, Slawomir; Yang, Xiaohong R; Sherman, Mark; García-Closas, Montserrat; Blair, Aaron

doi:10.1136/oem.2009.046557

Occupational exposure to organic solvents and breast cancer in women

¹Department of Environmental Epidemiology, Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, Lodz, Poland
²Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
³Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention, The M Sklodowska-Curie Cancer Center and Institute of Oncology, Warsaw, Poland
⁴Hormonal and Reproductive Epidemiology Branch, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
⁵Department of Chemical Hazards, Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, Lodz, Poland

Correspondence to Dr Beata Peplonska, Department of Environmental Epidemiology, Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, Teresy 8 St., Lodz 91-348, Poland; beatap{at}imp.lodz.pl

Accepted 16 August 2009
Published Online First 9 October 2009

Abstract

Background Although studies in rodents suggest possible associations between exposure to organic solvents and breast cancer, the evidence in humans is limited.

Methods We evaluated job histories of 2383 incident breast cancer cases diagnosed during 2000–2003, and 2502 controls who participated in a large population-based case-control study in Poland. Industrial hygienists reviewed occupational histories and developed exposure metrics for total organic solvents and benzene. Unconditional logistic regression analyses estimated ORs and 95% CIs as the measure of association with breast cancer, controlling for breast cancer risk factors. Stratified analyses examined the potential modification by known breast cancer risk factors. Associations were also evaluated by oestrogen and progesterone receptor status and by other clinical characteristics of the tumours using polytomous regression analyses.

Results Women who ever worked at jobs with organic solvents exposure had a small, non-significant increase in breast cancer risk (OR=1.16; 95% CI 0.99 to 1.4). A significant association was present for oestrogen receptor- and progesterone receptor-negative tumours (OR 1.40; 95% CI 1.1 to 1.8), but there was no association with tumours with both positive receptors (OR 0.97; 95% CI 0.8 to 1.2 (p heterogeneity: 0.008)). We did not observe trends with increasing level of exposure. Known breast cancer risk factors did not modify the association between organic solvents and breast cancer risk. No association with breast cancer was found for benzene exposure (OR 1.00; 95% CI 0.8 to 1.3).

Conclusion Our study provides weak evidence for a possible association between occupational exposure to organic solvents as a class and breast cancer risk. The association might be limited to hormone receptor-negative tumours.

Footnotes

Participating Centres in Poland: Cancer Center and M.Skodowska-Curie Institute of Oncology in Warsaw: Departments of Epidemiology (Coordinating Center: Dr Jolanta Lissowska, Mrs Alicja Bardin-Mikolajczak, Dr Witold Zatonski), Breast Cancer Treatment and Reconstruction (Drs Edward Towpik and Jerzy Giermek), Departments of Surgical Oncology (Dr Pawel Kukawski), Pathology (Drs Grzegorz Rymkiewicz, Marcin Ligaj, Joanna Baranska, Agnieszka Turowicz, Wlodzimierz Olszewski), Polish Oncological Foundation in Warsaw: Pathology Department (Drs Dorota Mazepa-Sikora, Włodzimierz Olszewski), Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine in Lodz (Drs Neonila Szeszenia-Dabrowska, Beata Peplonska), Medical University in Lodz, Oncology Clinic (Drs Arkadiusz Jeziorski, Janusz Piekarski), and Pathology Department (Drs Radzislaw Kordek, Grazyna Pasz-Walczak, Robert Kubiak, Dorota Kupnicka, Boguslaw Olborski), Community Copernicus Hospital in Lodz, Department of Surgical Oncology (Drs Zbigniew Morawiec and Mariusz Pawlak), Polish Mother's Health Memorial Hospital in Lodz: Department of Surgical Oncology and Breast Diseases (Drs Marcin Faflik, Magdalena Baklinska, Marek Zadrozny, Boguslaw Westfal) and Clinical Pathomorphology (Drs Stanislaw Lukaszek, Andrzej Kulig).
Funding The study was supported by Intramural Funds of the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health (contract number: NCI N01-CP-91013).
Competing interests None.
Ethics approval This study was conducted with the approval of the institutional review boards at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), each of the participating Polish institutions, and the NCI contractor (Westat, Inc.).
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.