Occupational exposure to combustion by-products and breast cancer risk in postmenopausal women

Auteurs

Kahlila Paul-Cole, Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Montréal
France Labrèche, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, School of Public Health and Centre de recherche en santé publique, University of Montréal and CIUSSS Centre-Sud; Institut de recherche Robert-Sauvé en santé et en sécurité du travail (IRSST)
Mark S. Goldberg, Department of Medicine, McGill University
Sydney Westra, Health Innovation and Evaluation Hub, Université de Montréal Hospital Research Centre
Vikki Ho, Health Innovation and Evaluation Hub, Université de Montréal Hospital Research Centre (CRCHUM), Montréal, Canada, Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Université de Montréal School of Public Health (ESPUM), Québec, Canada

ORCID

Vikki Ho : https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0724-7917

Type de document

Études primaires

Année de publication

2025

Langue

Anglais

Titre de la revue

Annals of Work Exposures and Health

Première page

693

Dernière page

707

Résumé

Objective

To estimate the association between lifetime occupational exposure to select combustion by-products and postmenopausal breast cancer (BC) risk.

Materials and Methods

Data from a population-based case-control study among postmenopausal women residing in Montréal, Quebec were used. Cases included 661 women aged between 47 and 75 yr, diagnosed with incident malignant BC between 2008 and 2011. Controls comprised 587 women randomly selected from the Quebec Electoral List, frequency-matched to cases by 5-year age groups. Information on risk factors and lifetime occupational histories was collected by interview. Two industrial hygienists used job histories to assign exposure to 293 agents, including 6 combustion by-products (cooking fumes, diesel engine emissions, leaded and unleaded engine emissions, natural gas combustion products, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons [PAHs]). Unconditional logistic regression was used to estimate adjusted odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for BC risk, both for all tumours and by tumour molecular subtypes, in relation to occupational exposure to the 6 selected combustion by-products.

Results

No association was observed between occupational exposure to the 6 selected combustion by-products and postmenopausal BC. However, when considering molecular subtypes, women ever occupationally exposed to PAHs had a suggestive higher risk of Luminal B tumours (OR_model6 = 2.09, 95% CI: 0.87 to 4.60) compared with those never exposed. Additionally, women ever occupationally exposed to cooking fumes compared with those never exposed had a suggestive higher risk of HER2-enriched tumours (OR_model6 = 2.63, 95% CI: 0.98 to 6.40).

Conclusion

Occupational exposure to the 6 selected combustion by-products was not associated with postmenopausal BC. Suggestive higher risks of certain molecular subtypes of BC were observed with exposure to PAHs and cooking fumes. Future larger studies should consider the role of occupational exposures in the aetiology of BC across different molecular subtypes.

Mots-clés

Cancer du sein, Breast cancer, Relation profession-maladie, Occupation-disease relation, Résidu de combustion, Combustion residue, Différence liée à l'âge, Age difference, Femme, Woman, Québec

Numéro de projet IRSST

n/a

Citation recommandée

Paul-Cole, K., Labrèche, F., Goldberg, M. S., Westra, S. et Ho, V. (2025). Occupational exposure to combustion by-products and breast cancer risk in postmenopausal women. Annals of Work Exposures and Health, 69(7), 693-707. https://doi.org/10.1093/annweh/wxaf035