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. 2020 May 15;146(10):2721-2727.
doi: 10.1002/ijc.32595. Epub 2019 Aug 26.

Blood arsenic levels and the risk of familial breast cancer in Poland

Wojciech Marciniak  1   2 , Róża Derkacz  1   2 , Magdalena Muszyńska  1   2 , Piotr Baszuk  1   2 , Jacek Gronwald  1   2 , Tomasz Huzarski  1   2   3 , Cezary Cybulski  1   2 , Anna Jakubowska  1   2 , Michał Falco  4 , Tadeusz Dębniak  1   2 , Marcin Lener  1 , Oleg Oszurek  1 , Katherine Pullella  5 , Joanne Kotsopoulos  5   6 , Ping Sun  5 , Steven A Narod  5   6 , Jan Lubiński  1   2
Affiliations

Blood arsenic levels and the risk of familial breast cancer in Poland

Wojciech Marciniak et al. Int J Cancer. .

Abstract

Arsenic is recognized as a potent carcinogen at high concentrations, but the relationship between environmental arsenic and breast cancer risk has not well been studied. Most research has focused on the effect of arsenic in populations with high endemic exposure, and not in populations with arsenic levels within normal limits. We sought to determine if blood arsenic levels predict the risk of breast and other cancers risk among women in northern Poland. The cohort consisted of 1,702 healthy women, aged 40 and above, identified between 2010 and 2017. Blood arsenic level was determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. After an average of 4.5 years of follow-up (range 0.7-7.3 years), there were 110 incident cases of cancer diagnosed in the cohort, including 68 cases of breast cancer. Women in the highest quartile of arsenic had a highly significant 13-fold increased risk of developing breast cancer, compared to women in the lowest quartile (hazard ratio [HR] = 13.2; 95% confidence interval [CI] 4.02-43.0). Results were similar for arsenic and all incident cancers (HR quartile 4 vs. quartile 1 = 13.3; 95% CI 4.78-37.0). If confirmed, our study suggests that the blood arsenic level may be a useful predictive marker of cancer risk in women.

Keywords: Poland; arsenic; blood; cancer; cancer risk; cohort study; familial breast cancer; prospective study.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Probability of breast cancer‐free by arsenic level (quartiles). [Color figure can be viewed at http://wileyonlinelibrary.com]
Figure 2
Figure 2
Probability of cancer‐free (any cancer) by blood arsenic level (quartiles). [Color figure can be viewed at http://wileyonlinelibrary.com]
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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