Pollution associated with increased risk of breast cancer after menopause

A study by the Jordi Gol Institute for Primary Care Research (IDIAPJGol) in Barcelona has found that environmental pollution increases the risk of breast cancer in women after menopause, the institution reported this Thursday in a statement.

The researchers, who have published an article in the journal Environmental Research, followed 1,054,180 premenopausal women and 744,658 postmenopausal women for an average of ten years, between 2009 and 2018.

The objective of this research was study the association between air pollution, green spaces and the risk of contracting breast cancer both before and after menopause.

The team carried out a cohort study based on the general population of Catalonia using data collected prospectively from the Information System for Research in Primary Care (SIDIAP) in Catalonia, analyzing data from 1,798,838 women between 17 and 85 years of age .

At the level of environmental pollution, the measurements were of polluting particles (PM2.5 and PM10) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and, with respect to green spaces, the NVDI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) and the percentage of green spaces in the census areas where women resided.

During follow-up, 6,126 (0.6%) premenopausal women were diagnosed with breast cancer and 17,858 (2.4%) in the postmenopausal cohort.

Follow-up between 5 and 10 years

The mean follow-up time was 5 years for women who developed breast cancer and 10 years for those who did not develop the disease.

For premenopausal women, the mean age at baseline was 38 years for those women diagnosed with breast cancer and 32 years for those who were not, while for postmenopausal women the mean age was 62 and 63 years, respectively.

The researchers found that an increase in the concentration of PM2.5, PM10 and NO2 increases the risk of breast cancer in postmenopausal women, while in premenopausal women only extremely high concentrations of PM10 (equal to or greater than 46 micrograms/ cubic meter) were associated with an increased risk of breast cancer.

NDVI was only associated with a decreased risk of cancer among postmenopausal women who did not change residence during follow-up or who were followed for at least three years.

According to the researchers, “policies to reduce air pollution and increase the availability of green spaces could help reduce the risk of breast cancer,” adding that more studies are needed to better understand the details of the potential effect of green spaces. green on breast cancer risk.

Source-listindiario.com