NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Apr 24 2004 – Women with breast cancer are more than 5 times as likely as their healthy peers to have measurable serum levels of DDT and hexachlorobenzene (HCB), according to a report published in the May issue of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. Previous studies have yielded conflicting results regarding a link between exposure to organochlorine pesticides and breast cancer, lead author Dr. C. Charlier and colleagues, from Sart Tilman University Hospital in Liege, Belgium, note. Therefore, further investigations are justified, they add.In the new study, serum levels of total DDT and HCB were measured in 159 women with breast cancer and in 250 presumably healthy control subjects. The average patient age in both groups was approximately 54 years.
The researchers found that the mean serum levels of both pesticides were significantly higher in breast cancer patients than in controls. Compared with control subjects, breast cancer patients were 5.64- and 9.14-times more likely to have measurable levels of DDT and HCB, respectively.Among women with breast cancer, DDT and HCB levels were not influenced by estrogen receptor status, the investigators point out.
“These results add to the growing evidence that certain persistent pollutants may occur in higher concentrations in blood samples from breast cancer patients than controls,” the researchers state. Still, “these data warrant further analysis, and consideration of possible exposure routes or dietary intake,” they add.
Occup Environ Med 2003;60:348-351
