Journal Article

Breast cancer risk and serum levels of per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances: a case-control study nested in the California Teachers Study

Petreas, Myrto, Wang, Miaomiao, Anton-Culver, Hoda, Park, June-Soo, Bernstein, Leslie, Nelson, David O., Goldberg, Debbie, Reynolds, Peggy, Hurley, Susan

2018

Overview

Background Per- and poly- fluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are a large family of synthetic chemicals, some of which are mammary toxicants and endocrine disruptors. Their potential as breast carcinogens is unclear. Our objective was to evaluate the risk of breast cancer associated with serum PFAS concentrations in a nested case-control study within the California Teachers Study. Methods Participants were 902 women with invasive breast cancer (cases) and 858 with no such diagnosis (controls) who provided 10 mL of blood and were interviewed during 2011–2015, an average of 35 months after case diagnosis. PFASs were measured using automated online SPE-HPLC-MS/MS methods. Statistical analyses were restricted to six PFASs with detection frequencies ≥ 95%: PFOA (Perfluorooctanoic acid), PFNA (Perfluorononanoic acid), PFUnDA (Perfluoroundecanoic acid), PFHxS (Perfluorohexane sulfonic acid), PFOS (Perfluorooctane sulfonic acid), and MeFOSAA (2-(N-Methyl-perfluorooctane sulfonamido) acetic acid. Unconditional logistic regression was used to calculate adjusted odds ratios (ORs), estimating the breast cancer risk associated with each PFAS. Results For all cases of invasive breast cancer, none of the adjusted ORs were statistically significant but marginally significant ORs < 1.0 were observed for PFUnDA and PFHxS (p-trend = 0.08). Adjusted ORs < 1.0 for PFUnDA and PFHxS were statistically significant ( p  ≤ 0.05) among the 107 cases with hormone-negative tumors but not the 743 with hormone-positive tumors. Conclusion Overall, these findings do not provide evidence that serum PFAS levels measured after diagnosis are related to breast cancer risk. The few inverse associations found may be due to chance or may be artifacts of study design. Future studies should incorporate information about genetic susceptibility, endogenous estrogen levels, and measurements of PFASs prior to diagnosis and treatment.

• Publisher: BioMed Central,BioMed Central Ltd,Springer Nature B.V,BMC
• Subject: Acetic acid / Alkyl groups / Breast cancer / Breast cancer risk / Cancer / Carcinogens / Case control / Case studies / Diagnosis / Earth and Environmental Science / Endocrine disruptors / Environment / Environmental Epidemiology / Environmental Health / Estrogens / Health aspects / Health risk assessment / Health risks / High-performance liquid chromatography / Hormone replacement therapy / Invasiveness / Liquid chromatography / Occupational Medicine/Industrial Medicine / Organic chemistry / Perfluoro compounds / Perfluoroalkyl substances / Perfluorocarbons / Perfluorohexane / Perfluorooctane sulfonic acid / Perfluorooctanoic acid / PFAS / Physiological aspects / Polyfluoroalkyl substances / Public Health / Regression analysis / Risk / Risk factors / Serum levels / Statistical analysis / Statistical methods / Statistical significance / Studies / Sulfonic acid / Teachers / Teaching methods / Toxicants / Tumors / Womens health