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Association between biomarkers of environmental exposure and increased risk of breast cancer

Nature Reviews Cancer volume 6, page 652 (2006)Cite this article

A Correspondence to this article was published on 01 August 2006

In December 2005, Deborah Winn's Science and Society article reviewed research findings from the Long Island Breast Cancer Study Project (LIBCSP)1. Her conclusion that the LIBCSP provided “no evidence that environmental exposures were responsible” for breast cancer patterns on Long Island is misleading and understates the complexity of the data. In fact, Winn reviews three reports that show a clear association between biomarkers of environmental exposure and increased risk of breast cancer on Long Island, including: 1) women with the highest exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons had a 50% increase in breast cancer risk2; 2) those with elevated levels of a specific polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) variant in breast fat had a fourfold increased risk of recurrence of the disease3; 3) women who lived within 1 mile of hazardous waste sites that contained organochlorines in Nassau and Suffolk counties had a threefold increased risk of breast cancer4. In addition, her review also notes that women living on Cape Cod for 5 or more years had a 20% increased risk of breast cancer compared with those in the rest of the state. Interestingly, for the Cape Cod cohort, women who had been living there for 25–30 years — since 1948, the year that the use of DDT began in that area — had the greatest odds ratio for developing cancer5.'

Experimental research has clearly shown that many environmental exposures that cannot easily be studied in humans can damage cells and cause disease, including cancer. It is very difficult to reconstruct real-life exposures for a multifactoral disease like breast cancer, where the timing of exposure is uncertain and the ability to reconstruct a lifetime exposure assessment using biomarker analysis or Geographical Information System (GIS) mapping techniques are limited. Despite all of the epidemiological research that has been performed, the causes of regional 'hot spots' for breast cancer in the United States, are not well understood at this time.

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References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, Center for Environmental Oncology, 5150 Centre Avenue, Suite 435, Pittsburgh, 15232, Pennsylvania, USA

    Maryann Donovan, Tiffany D. Miles, Jean J. Latimer & Devra L. Davis

  2. University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. Department of Epidemiology, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

    Steven Grant & Evelyn Talbott

  3. Department of Preventive Medicine, International Agency for Research on Cancer and Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale, Lyon, France, now with University of Bordeaux, France

    Annie J. Sasco

Authors
  1. Maryann Donovan
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  2. Tiffany D. Miles
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  3. Jean J. Latimer
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  4. Steven Grant
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  5. Evelyn Talbott
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  6. Annie J. Sasco
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  7. Devra L. Davis
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Correspondence to Devra L. Davis.

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Donovan, M., Miles, T., Latimer, J. et al. Association between biomarkers of environmental exposure and increased risk of breast cancer. Nat Rev Cancer 6, 652 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrc1755-c1

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