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Pierluigi Cocco,¹ Neely Kazerouni,² and Shelia Hoar Zahm²

¹Institute of Occupational Medicine, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy
²Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA

Abstract

To explore the role of DDE, the major and most persistent DDT derivative, in cancer etiology, we examined the association of the 1968 adipose DDE levels of population samples from 22 U.S. states with age-adjusted mortality rates between 1975 and 1994 for multiple myeloma ; non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) ; and cancer of the breast, corpus uteri, liver, and pancreas. Separate analyses were conducted by gender and race. Covariates in the regression models included average per-capita income, percent metropolitan residents, and the population density. Liver cancer mortality increased significantly with adipose DDE levels in both sexes among whites, but not among African Americans. No association was observed for pancreatic cancer and multiple myeloma. Breast cancer mortality was inversely correlated with adipose DDE levels among both white and African American women. Significant inverse correlations were also observed for uterine cancer among white women, whereas no association was observed for African Americans and for NHL among whites (men and women) and African American women. The results for pancreatic cancer, multiple myeloma, NHL, breast cancer, and uterine cancer did not support the hypothesis of an association with past adipose levels of the DDT derivative DDE. The multivariate analysis confirmed most findings. The association between liver cancer and DDE observed among whites, particularly in view of the occurrence of hepatic neoplasms in laboratory animals exposed to DDT, warrants further investigation. Key words: breast cancer, cancer of the corpus uteri, DDE, DDT, environment, epidemiology, liver cancer, multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, pancreatic cancer. Environ Health Perspect 108:1-4 (2000) . [Online 22 November 1999]

http://ehpnet1.niehs.nih.gov/docs/2000/108p1-4cocco/ abstract.html

Address correspondence to P. Cocco, Institute of Occupational Medicine, University of Cagliari, via San Giorgio 12, 09124 Cagliari, Italy. Telephone: 39 70 602 8278. Fax: 39 70 654350. E-mail: coccop@pacs.unica.it

This work was initiated while P.C. was a guest researcher at the Occupational Epidemiology Branch, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, directed by A.E. Blair. The authors are grateful to D. Grauman (Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD) for his collaboration in providing data on mortality rates by state in the United States.

The work of P.C. was supported by funding from the International Union Against Cancer (Geneva, Switzerland) and the NCI/EORTC Exchange Program (Brussels, Belgium) .

Received 5 May 1999 ; accepted 12 July 1999.