1 INSERM, UMR 1086 Cancers et Préventions, Caen, France
2 Université de Caen Basse-Normandie, Caen, France
3 Centre de Lutte Contre le Cancer François Baclesse, Caen, France
4 CHU de Caen, Service de Pathologie Professionnelle, Caen, France
5 Université de Bordeaux, ISPED, Equipe EPICENE, Bordeaux, France
6 INSERM, ISPED, Centre INSERM U897 – Epidémiologie-Biostatistique, Bordeaux, France
7 CHU de Bordeaux, Service de Médecine du Travail, Bordeaux, France
8 Registre Général des Tumeurs du Calvados, Centre François Baclesse, Caen, France
9 Registre des Cancers du Bas-Rhin, Faculté de Médecine, Université de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France
10 Caisse Centrale de la Mutualité Sociale Agricole, Direction de la santé sécurité au travail, Bagnolet, France
Purpose: Farming and pesticide use are regularly associated with increased prostate cancer risk. Our aim was to identify occupational risk factors related to pesticide exposure associated with prostate cancer risk among men enroled in the large prospective cohort AGRICAN.
Methods: Data on lifetime agricultural exposures (13 types of crops, 5 livestock and their related tasks including pesticide use and re-entry tasks) were collected from the enrolment questionnaire. We used a simplified version of the crop-exposure matrix PESTIMAT to assess exposure to organochlorine insecticides. From enrolment (2005-2007) to 2009, 1672 incident prostate cancer cases were identified from cancer registries.
Results: A greater prostate cancer risk was observed among men treating cattle with insecticides, mainly those having the largest stock (≥150 cattle: HR 1.59, 95% CI 1.02-2.48; p for trend= 0.01). A slight increased risk was observed among male pesticide users (HR 1.10, 95% CI 0.97-1.25). Among fruit growers, harvesting also increased prostate cancer risk, up to two-fold for the largest area. We observed a borderline significant increased prostate cancer risk associated with exposure to organochlorine (HR 1.15, 95% CI 0.99-1.32) without linear relationship with duration of exposure. Eight out of the 18 active ingredients of organochlorine studied significantly increased prostate cancer risk and a linear relationship with intensity of exposure was observed for 6 of them (aldrin, chlordane, dieldrin, DDD, toxaphene and HCH).
Conclusions: This work provides new data on the association between pesticide exposure and prostate cancer risk and emphasize the need to consider other uses or exposures (insecticides on animals and re-entry tasks), use of protective gloves and specific active ingredients to study cancer risk associated to pesticide exposure.
This work was supported by the Ligue Nationale contre le Cancer, Fondation de France, MSA, ONEMA, and Centre François Baclesse.