Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Aug;94(6):1363-1373.
doi: 10.1007/s00420-021-01673-3. Epub 2021 Feb 28.

Risk of two common glandular cell-type cancers (breast and colorectal cancers) in Chinese occupational chefs: a nationwide ecological study in Taiwan

Pei-Chen Lin  1   2 , Chiung-Yu Peng  2   3 , Chih-Hong Pan  4 , Jui-Ying Lee  5 , Tusty-Jiuan Hsieh  2   6 , Yun-Shiuan Chuang  2   7   8 , Robert J Turesky  9   10 , Chia-Fang Wu  11 , Ming-Tsang Wu  12   13   14   15   16
Affiliations

Risk of two common glandular cell-type cancers (breast and colorectal cancers) in Chinese occupational chefs: a nationwide ecological study in Taiwan

Pei-Chen Lin et al. Int Arch Occup Environ Health. 2021 Aug.

Abstract

Objectives: Cooking oil fumes (COFs) contain many carcinogens. We investigated the association between COFs and incidence risk of colorectal cancer and female breast in chefs.

Methods: We identified Chinese food chefs and non-Chinese food chefs from Taiwan's national database of certified chefs in 1984-2007. In total, 379,275 overall and 259,450 females had not been diagnosed as having any cancer before chef certification. We followed these chefs in Taiwan's Cancer Registry Database (1979-2010) and Taiwan's National Death Statistics Database (1985-2011) for newly diagnosed colorectal cancer and female breast cancer.

Results: A total of 4,218,135 and 2,873,515 person-years were included in our analysis of colorectal cancer and female breast cancer incidence, respectively. Compared to non-Chinese food chefs, the Chinese food chefs had an adjusted IRR for colorectal cancer of 1.65 (95% CI 1.17-2.33). The risk of colorectal cancer was even higher among female Chinese food chefs certified for more than 5 years (adjusted incident rate ratio (IRR) = 2.39, 95% CI 1.38-4.12). For female breast cancer, the risk was also significant (adjusted IRR = 1.40, 95% CI 1.10-1.78) and the risks were even higher in female Chinese food chefs certified for more than 5 years (adjusted IRR = 1.74, 95% CI 1.37-2.22).

Conclusions: This study found that Chinese food chefs had an increased risk of colorectal cancer and female breast cancer, particularly female chefs who had worked for more than 5 years. Future human and animal studies are necessary to re-confirm these findings.

Keywords: Breast; Colon; Cooking oil fumes; Ecological study; Glandular cell-type cancer; Occupational chef.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Agudo A et al (2017) Aromatic DNA adducts and breast cancer risk: a case-cohort study within the EPIC-Spain. Carcinogenesis 38(7):691–698. https://doi.org/10.1093/carcin/bgx047 - DOI
    1. Agudo A et al (2012) Aromatic DNA adducts and risk of gastrointestinal cancers: a case-cohort study within the EPIC-Spain. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 21(4):685–692. https://doi.org/10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-11-1205 - DOI
    1. Bray F, Ferlay J, Soerjomataram I, Siegel RL, Torre LA, Jemal A (2018) Global cancer statistics 2018: GLOBOCAN estimates of incidence and mortality worldwide for 36 cancers in 185 countries. CA Cancer J Clin 68(6):394–424. https://doi.org/10.3322/caac.21492 - DOI
    1. Report CRA, T, (2018) CANCER REGISTRY ANNUAL REPORT, 2016. Taiwan. CANCER REGISTRY edn, Health Promotion Administration Ministry of Health and Welfare Taiwan, Taipei, Taiwan
    1. Cao J et al (2013) Toxic effect of cooking oil fumes in primary fetal pulmonary type II-like epithelial cells. Environ Toxicol Pharmacol 36(2):320–331. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.etap.2013.04.011 - DOI

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources