US EPA

2166162 

Journal Article 

Review 

Pesticides and breast cancer risk: a review of DDT, DDE, and dieldrin 

Snedeker, SM 

2001 

Yes 

Environmental Health Perspectives
ISSN: 0091-6765
EISSN: 1552-9924 

109 Suppl 1 

35-47 

English 

11250804 

WOS:000167553900005 

https://search.proquest.com/docview/76971773?accountid=171501
Exit
 

Established risk factors for breast cancer explain breast cancer risk only partially. Hence, there has been interest in evaluating what role environmental chemicals, especially those with evidence of being hormonally active agents, play in breast cancer risk. Organochlorine pesticides have received the most attention because of their persistence in the environment, ability to concentrate up the food chain, continued detection in the food supply and breast milk, and ability to be stored in the adipose tissue of animals and humans. Although several early descriptive studies and a cohort study identified a strong positive association with breast cancer risk and adipose or blood levels of the organochlorine pesticide dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and/or its metabolite dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (DDE), most of the more recent case--control and nested case--control studies have not supported this association. In this review I discuss these findings and explore how exposure to different forms of DDT with varying estrogenicities may have affected the results of these studies. I also address how other factors influence the interpretation of the studies on DDT, DDE, and breast cancer risk. These include the effect of analytic methods, dietary factors, menopausal status, use of different types of control populations, lactation history, estrogen receptor status, ethnic/racial subgroups, breast tumor characteristics, and polymorphisms. I also discuss the emerging research on whether serum levels of the persistent organochlorine insecticide dieldrin are related to breast cancer risk in Danish and American women. Further research needs are also identified. 

breast cancer; DDE; DDT; dieldrin; environmental estrogens; epidemiology; insecticides; mammary cancer; organochlorines; pesticides