Prevalent occupational exposures and risk of lung cancer among women: Results from the application of the Canadian Job‐Exposure Matrix (CANJEM) to a combined set of ten case–control studies

Mengting Xu (1) , Vikki Ho (1) , Jérôme Lavoué (1) , Ann Olsson (2) , Joachim Schüz (2) , Lesley Richardson (1) , Marie‐elise Parent (3) , John Mclaughlin (4) , Paul Demers (5) , Pascal Guénel (6) , Loredana Radoï (6) , Heinz‐erich Wichmann (7) , Wolfgang Ahrens (8) , Karl‐heinz Jöckel (9) , Dario Consonni (10) , Maria Landi (11) , Lorenzo Richiardi (12) , Lorenzo Simonato (13) , Andrea t' Mannetje (14) , Beata Świątkowska (15) , John Field (16) , Neil Pearce (17) , Jack Siemiatycki (1)

1 CR CHUM - Centre de Recherche du Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal
2 CIRC - IARC - Centre International de Recherche contre le Cancer - International Agency for Research on Cancer
3 INRS-IAF - Institut Armand Frappier
4 University of Toronto
5 Occupational Cancer Research Centre
6 CESP - Centre de recherche en épidémiologie et santé des populations
7 German Research Center for Environmental Health - Helmholtz Center München (GmbH)
8 Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology - BIPS
9 Universität Duisburg-Essen = University of Duisburg-Essen [Essen]
10 Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda - Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico
11 NCI-NIH - National Cancer Institute [Bethesda]
12 UNITO - Università degli studi di Torino = University of Turin
13 Unipd - Università degli Studi di Padova = University of Padua
14 Massey University
15 NIOM - Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine
16 University of Liverpool
17 LSHTM - London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Background Worldwide, lung cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in women. The present study explored associations between occupational exposures that are prevalent among women, and lung cancer. Methods Data from 10 case–control studies of lung cancer from Europe, Canada, and New Zealand conducted between 1988 and 2008 were combined. Lifetime occupational history and information on nonoccupational factors including smoking were available for 3040 incident lung cancer cases and 4187 controls. We linked each reported job to the Canadian Job‐Exposure Matrix (CANJEM), which provided estimates of probability, intensity, and frequency of exposure to each selected agent in each job. For this analysis, we selected 15 agents (cleaning agents, biocides, cotton dust, synthetic fibers, formaldehyde, cooking fumes, organic solvents, cellulose, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from petroleum, ammonia, metallic dust, alkanes C18+, iron compounds, isopropanol, and calcium carbonate) that had lifetime exposure prevalence of at least 5% in the combined study population. For each agent, we estimated lung cancer risk in each study center for ever‐exposure, by duration of exposure, and by cumulative exposure, using separate logistic regression models adjusted for smoking and other covariates. We then estimated the meta‐odds ratios using random‐effects meta‐analysis. Results and Conclusions None of the agents assessed showed consistent and compelling associations with lung cancer among women. The following agents showed elevated odds ratio in some analyses: metallic dust, iron compounds, isopropanol, and organic solvents. Future research into occupational lung cancer risk factors among women should prioritize these agents.

Mots clés: job‐exposure matrix; lung cancer; metals; occupational exposures; women

Domaines: Sciences de l'environnement

Mengting Xu, Vikki Ho, Jérôme Lavoué, Ann Olsson, Joachim Schüz, et al.. Prevalent occupational exposures and risk of lung cancer among women: Results from the application of the Canadian Job‐Exposure Matrix (CANJEM) to a combined set of ten case–control studies. American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 2024, 67 (3), pp.200-213. ⟨10.1002/ajim.23562⟩. ⟨inserm-04427259⟩