Cancer

Susceptibility

Genes

Environment

polycyclic aromatic Hydrocarbons PAH

P450, glutathione S-transferase (GST) N-acetyltransferase (NAT)

P. Perera Science 1997 278:1068

Cancer prevention : a Life Course Approach

Age

Develo

pm

en

t of

Can

cer

Fetal

Life

Adult Life Adolescence

Infancy and

Childhood

Accumulated risk

Genetic susceptibility to Cancer

Older ages

Umbilical cord blood from newborns found an array of industrial chemicals, pesticides and pollutants.

Ten newborns averaged 200 contaminants, and 209 pollutants had never before been detected in cord

blood.

Of the 287 chemicals found in newborn umbilical cord blood, 180 cause cancer in humans or animals, 217 are toxic to the brain and nervous system, and 208 cause developmental problems. The dangers of exposure to these chemicals in combination has never been studied.

http://archive.ewg.org/reports/bodyburden2/

• Of the 287 chemicals found in newborn umbilical cord blood, 180 cause cancer in humans or animals, 217 are toxic to the brain and nervous system, and 208 cause developmental problems. The dangers of exposure to these chemicals in combination has never been studied.

• We detected 287 chemicals of 413 tested (69 percent) in umbilical cord blood samples from 10 newborn babies, with a range of between 154 and 231 for each child. We found 101 chemicals in all babies tested.

organochlorine pesticides (DDT/ dieldrin) chemicals in a wide range of consumer products (perfluorochemicals, brominated fire retardants, PCBs), and chemicals from waste incineration and fossil fuel combustion (polyaromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated and polybrominated dioxins/furans, polychlorinated naphthalenes, mercury).

http://archive.ewg.org/reports/bodyburden2/

Synthetic halogenated chemicals increase liver tumors after early life-stage exposure.

TCDD a prototypical endocrine-disrupting compound, 2,3,7,8-tetra chloro dibenzo-p-dioxin, has been shown to be a developmental toxicant of the mammary gland in rodents.

Dioxin alters multiple endocrine systems, and its effects on the developing breast involve delayed proliferation/differentiation ofthe mammary gland, as well as an elongation of the window of sensitivity to potential carcinogens.

Implications of these new findings suggest that causes of endocrine-related cancers or susceptibility to cancer may be a result of developmental exposures rather than exposures existing at or near the time of tumor detection.

Endocrine disruptors during breast development

Birnbaum SL Environ Health Perspect 111:389–394 (2003).

Endocrine disruptors during breast development

Birnbaum SL Environ Health Perspect 111:389–394 (2003).

Mammary gland tissue from LE rats exposed in late gestation to ATR is atrazine ( a pesticide) and TCDD or 2,3,7,8-

tetrachlorodibenzo-p dioxin.

ATR 100mg/kg TCDD 1 g/kg

PND 4

PND 33

PND 68

Controlatrazine dioxin

Mortalidad por tumores malignos de mama*Chile 1990-2004. Tasas por 100.000

10,5

11

11,5

12

12,5

13

13,5

90/91 92/93 94/95 96/97 98/99 00/01 02/03t 2004

*femenino

Fuente: DEIS/MINSAL

Mortalidad por tumores malignos de próstataChile 1990-2004. Tasas por 100.000

02

4

6

8

1012

14

16

18

20

90/91 92/93 94/95 96/97 98/99 00/01 02/03t 2004

Fuente: DEIS/MINSAL