Association between Air Pollution and Prostate Cancer in the US-based Health Professionals Follow-Up Study
Year: 2022
Type: conference-abstract
Abstract: Background and aim Prostate cancer, the most diagnosed cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death in U.S. men, is a hormonally driven malignancy. Air pollution could impact prostate carcinogenesis via its role in endocrine disruption and inflammation. There is limited epidemiologic research on the association between air pollution and prostate cancer. We prospectively evaluated whether PM2.5 and NO2 exposure increases prostate cancer risk, particularly more aggressive forms of the disease. Methods We followed 48,879 participants in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study from 1990 through 2016 through biennial questionnaires. We used spatiotemporal models to estimate PM2.5 and NO2 at all mailing addresses. Fatal prostate cancer is defined as death from prostate cancer and total as diagnosis of prostate cancer. Multivariable Cox models were used to estimate hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals in single and multipollutant models, adjusting for prostate cancer risk factors, neighborhood SES (nSES), and population density. Results Over 26 years of follow-up, we identified 5,418 total and 779 fatal prostate cancer cases. We found no association with PM2.5 in single or multipollutant models for either outcome. Each interquartile (9.62 ppb) increase in cumulative NO2 was associated with fatal prostate cancer, in single (HR: 1.06, 95% CI: 0.96, 1.17) and more strongly in multipollutant models (HR: 1.12, 95% CI: 1.01, 1.26). There was no association between NO2 and total prostate cancer in single (HR: 1.01, 95% CI: 0.97, 1.04) or multipollutant models (HR: 1.02, 95% CI: 0.98, 1.07). Conclusion Exposure to higher levels of NO2 is associated with increased risk of fatal prostate cancer. Future analyses will explore how this association varies by nSES, population density, and region.
Source: ISEE Conference Abstracts
Institutions: Harvard University, Brigham and Women's Hospital
Language: English
Subfield: Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4316924946