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Original article
Relationships between occupational history and serum concentrations of organochlorine compounds in exocrine pancreatic cancer Magda Bosch de Basea,1,2 Miquel Porta,1,2,3 Joan Alguacil,2,4 Elisa Puigdome`nech,1,2 Magda Gasull,1,2 Jose´ A Garrido,4 Toma`s Lo´pez,1,2 for the PANKRAS II Study Group < An additional table is
published online only. To view this file please visit the journal online (http://oem.bmj.com). 1
Institut Municipal d’Investigacio´ Me`dica (IMIM), Barcelona, Spain 2 CIBER en Epidemiologı´a y Salud Pu´blica (CIBERESP), Spain 3 School of Medicine, Universitat Auto`noma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain 4 Universidad de Huelva, Huelva, Spain Correspondence to Miquel Porta, Clinical and Molecular Epidemiology of Cancer Unit, Institut Municipal d’Investigacio´ Me`dica (IMIM), Universitat Auto`noma de Barcelona, Carrer del Dr Aiguader 88, E-08003 Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain;
[email protected] Members of the Multicentre Prospective Study on the Role of K-ras and other Genetic Alterations in the Diagnosis, Prognosis and Etiology of Pancreatic and Biliary Diseases (PANKRAS II) Study Group are mentioned in previous publications. Accepted 13 September 2010 Published Online First 23 November 2010
ABSTRACT Background Previous studies investigating associations between occupational history and risk of exocrine pancreatic cancer (EPC) did not use biomarkers of exposure. The only two studies that measured internal concentrations of organochlorine compounds (OCs) in EPC did not analyse their relationship with occupation. Objective To analyse the relationship between occupational history and blood concentrations of seven OCs in patients with EPC. Methods Incident cases of EPC were prospectively identified, and during hospital admission were interviewed face-to-face on occupational history and lifestyle factors (n¼135). Occupations were coded according to the International Standard of Occupations 1988. Some occupational exposures were also assessed with the Finnish job-exposure matrix (Finjem). Serum concentrations of OCs were analysed by high-resolution gas chromatography with electron-capture detection. Results Craftsmen and related trades workers had significantly higher concentrations of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congeners 138, 153 and 180. Years worked in agriculture did not influence concentrations of p,p9 -DDT, p,p9 -DDE, hexachlorobenzene or b-hexachlorocyclohexane. Subjects who ever worked in agriculture had lower concentrations of PCBs (all p15 years of work in agriculture (n¼16). b-HCH, b-hexachlorocyclohexane; DDE, dichlorodiphenyldichloroethane; DDT, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane; HCB, hexachlorobenzene; PCB, polychlorinated biphenyl.
materially change the results (see last column of table 3). By contrast, multivariate analyses showed that concentrations of p,p9 -DDT, p,p9 -DDE, HCB and b‑HCH were not significantly different in any of the ISCO major groups (table 2). Having worked in agriculture did not influence serum concentrations of p,p9 -DDT, p,p9 -DDE, HCB or b-HCH, while concentrations of the three PCBs were significantly lower among patients who ever did so (table 3). The inverse relationships with PCBs were even more evident in subjects who had worked in agriculture for more than 15 years (all b coefficients about e0.50 and all p values for trend
