Increased childhood liver cancer mortality and arsenic in drinking water in northern Chile

Liaw J.; Marshall G.; Yuan, Y; Ferreccio C.; Steinmaus, C; Smith, AH

Abstract

Arsenic in drinking water is an established cause of lung, bladder, and skin cancers in adults and may also cause adult kidney and liver cancers. Some evidence for these effects originated from region II of Chile, which had a period of elevated arsenic levels in drinking water, in particular from 1958 to 1970. This unique exposure scenario provides a rare opportunity to investigate the effects of early-life arsenic exposure on childhood mortality; to our knowledge, this is the first study of childhood cancer mortality and high concentrations of arsenic in drinking water. In this article, we compare cancer mortality rates under the age of 20 in region II during 1950 to 2000 with those of unexposed region V, dividing subjects into those born before, during, or after the peak exposure period. Mortality from the most common childhood cancers, leukemia and brain cancer, was not increased in the exposed population. However, we found that childhood liver cancer mortality occurred at higher rates than expected. For those exposed as young children, liver cancer mortality between ages 0 and 19 was especially high: the relative risk (RR) for males born during this period was 8.9 [95% confidence interval (95% CI), 1.7-45.8; P = 0.009]; for females, the corresponding RR was 14.1 (95% CI, 1.6-126; P = 0.018); and for males and females pooled, the RR was 10.6 (95% CI, 2.9-39.2; P < 0.001). These findings suggest that exposure to arsenic in drinking water during early childhood may result in an increase in childhood liver cancer mortality. Copyright © 2008 American Association for Cancer Research.

Más información

Título según WOS: Increased childhood liver cancer mortality and arsenic in drinking water in northern Chile
Título según SCOPUS: Increased childhood liver cancer mortality and arsenic in drinking water in northern Chile
Título de la Revista: CANCER EPIDEMIOLOGY BIOMARKERS & PREVENTION
Volumen: 17
Número: 8
Editorial: AMER ASSOC CANCER RESEARCH
Fecha de publicación: 2008
Página de inicio: 1982
Página final: 1987
Idioma: English
URL: http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/cgi/doi/10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-07-2816
DOI:

10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-07-2816

Notas: ISI, SCOPUS