Parental occupational exposure to chemicals and risk of breast cancer in female offspring.

OBJECTIVES

Parental exposure to chemicals at work has been hypothesized to be a potential predisposing factor for breast cancer in next generations. The objective of the present nationwide nested case-control study was to contribute with evidence to this area.

METHODS

Women with primary breast cancer were identified using the Danish Cancer Registry and they were required to have information on either maternal or paternal employment history, which resulted in the inclusion of 5587 cases. For each case, 20 female cancer free controls were matched on year of birth using the Danish Civil Registration System. Employment history was linked to job exposure matrices to assess specific occupational chemical exposures.

RESULTS

For maternal exposures, we observed an association between ever exposure to diesel exhaust (OR = 1.13, 95% CI: 1.01-1.27) and exposure to bitumen fumes in the perinatal period (OR = 1.51, 95% CI: 1.00-2.26) and breast cancer in female offspring. Highest cumulative exposure to benzo(a)pyrene, diesel exhaust, gasoline and bitumen fumes was further indicated to increase the risk. Results further indicated a stronger association between diesel exhaust (OR = 1.23, 95% CI: 1.01-1.50) and benzo(a)pyrene exposure (OR = 1.23, 95% CI: 0.96-1.57) and estrogen receptor negative tumors than tumors with ER expression, while bitumen fumes seemed to elevate the risk of both hormonal subtypes. For paternal exposures, the main results did not indicate any associations with breast cancer in female offspring.

CONCLUSIONS

Our study suggests an elevated breast cancer risk in daughters of women occupational exposed to some occupational pollutants, including diesel exhaust, benzo(a)pyrene and bitumen fumes. These findings need to be confirmed in future large-scale studies before any firm conclusions can be reached.