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Jump to full article: Reuters, 2002-08-06
Intro: There appears to be little or no link between breast cancer and exposure to certain pesticides and air pollutants, and these environmental factors don't seem to explain the high breast cancer rate seen on Long Island, New York, researchers reported Tuesday.
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In their first study, Gammon and colleagues tested blood samples for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) from 575 women with breast cancer and 424 "control" women who were cancer-free.
PAHs are known to cause breast cancer in rats and are found in cigarette smoke, car and airplane exhaust and in grilled and smoked food.
Overall, the researchers found no link between PAH level in the body and breast cancer risk. When they looked at women with the highest amount of PAH exposure, those women did have a slightly higher risk--about 1.5 times higher--than women with the lowest level. However, there was no consistent increased risk with increasing exposure. And the researchers found no link between DNA damage associated with PAH and smoking or passive smoke exposure or the consumption of grilled or smoked foods, the researchers note. . .
"Our findings with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons suggest that women's individual response to similar PAH exposures might be more relevant to breast cancer development than the absolute amount of PAH exposure," Gammon said. "A lot more work needs to be done to sort out exactly what and how environmental exposures may promote breast cancer."
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