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Multicenter Study
. 2020 Feb 1;146(3):839-849.
doi: 10.1002/ijc.32350. Epub 2019 May 9.

Prediagnostic blood levels of organochlorines and risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma in three prospective cohorts in China and Singapore

Bryan A Bassig  1 , Xiao-Ou Shu  2 , Andreas Sjödin  3 , Woon-Puay Koh  4   5 , Yu-Tang Gao  6 , Jennifer Adams-Haduch  7 , Mark Davis  3 , Renwei Wang  7 , Yong-Bing Xiang  8 , Lawrence S Engel  9 , Mark P Purdue  1 , Bu-Tian Ji  1 , Gong Yang  2 , Richard S Jones  3 , Hilde Langseth  10 , H Dean Hosgood  11 , Tom K Grimsrud  10 , Wei Jie Seow  5   12 , Jason Y Y Wong  1 , Wei Hu  1 , Dazhe Chen  9 , Wei Zheng  2 , Jian-Min Yuan  7   13 , Qing Lan  1 , Nathaniel Rothman  1
Affiliations
Multicenter Study

Prediagnostic blood levels of organochlorines and risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma in three prospective cohorts in China and Singapore

Bryan A Bassig et al. Int J Cancer. .

Abstract

Specific organochlorines (OCs) have been associated with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) with varying degrees of evidence. These associations have not been evaluated in Asia, where the high exposure and historical environmental contamination of certain OC pesticides (e.g., dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane [DDT], hexachlorocyclohexane [HCH]) are different from Western populations. We evaluated NHL risk and prediagnostic blood levels of OC pesticides/metabolites and polychlorinated biphenyl congeners in a case-control study of 167 NHL cases and 167 controls nested within three prospective cohorts in Shanghai and Singapore. Conditional logistic regression was used to analyze lipid-adjusted OC levels and NHL risk. Median levels of p,p'-dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (p,p'-DDE), the primary DDT metabolite, and β-HCH were up to 12 and 65 times higher, respectively, in samples from the Asian cohorts compared to several cohorts in the United States and Norway. An increased risk of NHL was observed among those with higher β-HCH levels both overall (3rd vs. 1st tertile OR = 1.8, 95%CI = 1.0-3.2; ptrend = 0.049) and after excluding cases diagnosed within 2 years of blood collection (3rd vs. 1st tertile OR = 2.0, 95%CI = 1.1-3.9; ptrend = 0.03), and the association was highly consistent across the three cohorts. No significant associations were observed for other OCs, including p,p'-DDE. Our findings provide support for an association between β-HCH blood levels and NHL risk. This is a concern because substantial quantities of persistent, toxic residues of HCH are present in the environment worldwide. Although there is some evidence that DDT is associated with NHL, our findings for p,p'-DDE do not support an association.

Keywords: Chinese cohort; DDT; hexachlorocyclohexane; non-Hodgkin lymphoma; organochlorines.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. Selected organochlorine pesticide and PCB congener concentrations in Asian and Western populations
Median concentrations of OCs (ng/g lipid) are presented for each population along with the range of blood collection years and mean age of the participants. For the Asian cohort populations, the following abbreviations are used: Shanghai Women’s Health Study (SWHS), Shanghai Cohort Study (SCS), and the Singapore Chinese Health Study (SCHS).
Figure 1.
Figure 1.. Selected organochlorine pesticide and PCB congener concentrations in Asian and Western populations
Median concentrations of OCs (ng/g lipid) are presented for each population along with the range of blood collection years and mean age of the participants. For the Asian cohort populations, the following abbreviations are used: Shanghai Women’s Health Study (SWHS), Shanghai Cohort Study (SCS), and the Singapore Chinese Health Study (SCHS).
Figure 1.
Figure 1.. Selected organochlorine pesticide and PCB congener concentrations in Asian and Western populations
Median concentrations of OCs (ng/g lipid) are presented for each population along with the range of blood collection years and mean age of the participants. For the Asian cohort populations, the following abbreviations are used: Shanghai Women’s Health Study (SWHS), Shanghai Cohort Study (SCS), and the Singapore Chinese Health Study (SCHS).
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