American Journal of Epidemiology Vol. 153, No. 9 : 841-850
Copyright © 2001 by The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health
ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTIONS |
Risk of Pancreatic Cancer in Workers Exposed to Chlorinated Hydrocarbon Solvents and Related Compounds: A Meta-Analysis
1 Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Helsinki, Finland.
2 Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
3 Unit of Environmental Cancer Epidemiology, International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France.
4 Finnish Cancer Registry, Helsinki, Finland.
5 Institut Gustave-Roussy, Unit 521, Institut National de la Santé et de la Reserche Médicale, Villejuif, France.
6 Institut Municipal d'Investigacio Medica, Barcelona, Spain.
7 Unit of Chemoprevention, International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France.
8 Institute of Medical Epidemiology, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
9 Regional Institute for Research on Toxic Substances, Universidad Nacional, Heredia, Costa Rica.
This is a meta-analysis of occupational exposures to chlorinated hydrocarbon (CHC) solvents and pancreatic cancer, based primarily on studies that addressed exposure directly (agent studies) and secondarily on studies that reported data without verification of individual CHC exposures (job title studies), all of which were listed in databases for the period January 1969 to May 1998. Standardized extraction of data and double-checking of consistency of data extraction by five extractors were done. Simple random models estimated meta-relative risks. Suggestive weak excesses were found for trichloroethylene (meta-relative risk (MRR) = 1.24, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.79, 1.97), polychlorinated biphenyls (MRR = 1.37, 95% CI: 0.56, 3.31), methylene chloride (MRR = 1.42, 95% CI: 0.80, 2.53), and vinyl chloride (MRR = 1.17, 95% CI: 0.71, 1.91) but not for carbon tetrachloride. One study addressed tetrachloroethylene (MRR = 3.08, 95% CI: 0.63, 8.99); another investigated chlorohydrin production (MRR = 4.92, 95% CI: 1.58, 11.4). Exposure-response meta-analyses for trichloroethylene and methylene chloride failed to reveal trends. Job title studies on metal degreasing and dry cleaning revealed significant MRRs (2.0 and 1.4, respectively). Publication bias was unlikely. Confounding may have remained insufficiently controlled. Unless the results are seriously biased by exposure or endpoint misclassification or by confounding, strong causal associations between CHC compounds and pancreatic cancer can be judged unlikely. Interactions between environmental and occupational agents, lifestyle factors, and genetic susceptibility remain a possibility, but the data for this meta-analysis did not address interactions.
hydrocarbons; chlorinated; meta-analysis; occupational exposure; pancreatic neoplasms; solvents
Abbreviations: CHC, chlorinated hydrocarbon; CI, confidence interval; IARC, International Agency for Research on Cancer; MRR, meta-relative risk; PCBs, polychlorinated biphenyls; SMR, standardized mortality ratio.
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