Harri Vainio

Childhood cancer and parental occupation in Finland.

A case-control study was conducted of the occupations of parents of children under 15 with diagnosed malignancies. The total series contained all childhood cancers cases reported to the Finnish Cancer Registry during the period 1959-75. The parental occupations, recorded at the time of pregnancy, were collected from maternity welfare centres. The cases were analysed as a singly group or as subgroups according to the diagnoses-brain tumours, leukaemia, and all other malignancies. The maternal occupations found more frequently among cases than controls included farmers wives (1959-68 only), pharmacists, saleswomen, bakers, and factory work of an vehicle driving, machine repair, painting, and the work of men who gave an academic degree as their occupation. Some of these occupations involve possible exposure to harmful chemicals, although chance correlations cannot be excluded.

Differences in the carcinogenic evaluation of glyphosate between the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) Monographs Programme identifies chemicals, drugs, mixtures, occupational exposures, lifestyles and personal habits, and physical and biological agents that cause cancer in humans and has evaluated about 1000 agents since 1971. Monographs are written by ad hoc Working Groups (WGs) of international scientific experts over a period of about 12u2005months ending in an eight-day meeting. The WG evaluates all of the publicly available scientific information on each substance and, through a transparent and rigorous process,1 decides on the degree to which the scientific evidence supports that substances potential to cause or not cause cancer in humans.nnFor Monograph 112,2 17 expert scientists evaluated the carcinogenic hazard for four insecticides and the herbicide glyphosate.3 The WG concluded that the data for glyphosate meet the criteria for classification as a probable human carcinogen .nnThe European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is the primary agency of the European Union for risk assessments regarding food safety. In October 2015, EFSA reported4 on their evaluation of the Renewal Assessment Report5 (RAR) for glyphosate that was prepared by the Rapporteur Member State, the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR). EFSA concluded that ‘glyphosate is unlikely to pose a carcinogenic hazard to humans and the evidence does not support classification with regard to its carcinogenic potential’. Addendum 1 (the BfR Addendum) of the RAR5 discusses the scientific rationale for differing from the IARC WG conclusion.nnSerious flaws in the scientific evaluation in the RAR incorrectly characterise the potential for a carcinogenic hazard from exposure to glyphosate. Since the RAR is the basis for the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) conclusion,4 it is critical that these shortcomings are corrected.nnEFSA concluded ‘that there is very limited evidence for an association between glyphosate-based formulations …

Survival in operable non‐small‐cell lung cancer: Role of p53 mutations, tobacco smoking and asbestos exposure

Validated markers are needed to identify operable lung cancer patients with poor prognosis. About one‐half of non‐small‐cell lung cancers (NSCLCs) carry a mutation in the p53 tumor‐suppressor gene. We examined 101 NSCLC patients for surgical stage, completeness of resection, tobacco smoking, asbestos exposure, age, gender and p53 gene mutations as prognostic factors after a follow‐up period of 4 years. Cox`s multivariate regression model was applied to quantify the associations with overall and cancer‐related survival. Patients with a wild‐type p53 gene had an overall 4‐year survival of 43% and those with a mutated p53 gene, 35%. In squamous‐cell carcinoma, stage and heavy smoking, defined as the median of pack‐years smoked, had prognostic significance for overall survival. Only stage was associated with poor cancer‐related survival. Asbestos exposure was not associated with overall survival or cancer‐related survival in squamous‐cell carcinoma or adenocarcinoma. In adenocarcinoma, p53 mutation, in addition to stage, emerged as a significant predictor of poor cancer‐related survival. Int. J. Cancer 86:590–594, 2000.

Chemoprevention of cancer: lessons to be learned from beta-carotene trials.

Observational studies indicate a lower incidence of chronic diseases, including various cancers and cardiovascular disease, related to higher intakes of carotenoid containing foods (fruits and vegetables). Beta-carotene, one of the large number of naturally occurring carotenoids, thus appears to actively participate in health. However, recent intervention trials indicate that beta-carotene supplements are not efficacious in the prevention of cardiovascular disease and major cancers occurring in well-nourished populations. In fact, supplemental beta-carotene appears to increase, rather than to reduce, lung cancer incidence and deaths from cardiovascular disease in current smokers and in asbestos exposed workers. In order to resolve these paradoxes, we need to better understand the underlying biology, identify interactions, develop mechanistic hypotheses and test them in clinical trials in humans. Until that time, we should confine any premature enthusiasm for chemopreventive supplementation.

Cancer Incidence in Asbestos-Exposed Workers: An Update on Four Finnish Cohorts

Background We assessed the cancer risks of four different Finnish asbestos-exposed cohorts. We also explored if the cohorts with varying profiles of asbestos exposure exhibited varying relative risks of cancer. Methods The incident cancer cases for the asbestos-exposed worker cohorts were updated to the end of 2012 using the files of the Finnish Cancer Registry. The previously formed cohorts consisted of asbestos mine workers, asbestosis patients, asbestos sprayers, and workers who had taken part in a screening study based on asbestos exposure at work. Results The standardized incidence ratio (SIR) for mesothelioma varied from about threefold to > 100-fold in the different cohorts. In the screening cohort the SIR for mesothelioma was highest in 2003–2007, In other cohorts it was more constant in 5-year period inspection. The SIR for lung cancer was about twofold to tenfold in all except the screening cohort. Asbestos sprayers were at the highest risk of mesothelioma and lung cancer. Conclusion The SIR for mesothelioma is high in all of the cohorts that represent different kinds of asbestos exposure. The smaller SIR for mesothelioma in the screening cohort with lowest level of asbestos exposure might suggest dose-responsiveness between asbestos exposure and mesothelioma. It does seem that the highest risk of lung cancer in these cohorts except in the youngest of the cohorts, the screening cohort, is over. The highest SIR for lung cancer of the asbestosis patient and sprayers cohort is explained by their heavy asbestos exposure.

Importance of updating old cohorts for new findings

Mustard gas, or sulfur mustard, is a chemical with devastating acute toxic effects. The development, production, acquisition, stockpiling and transfer of all chemical weapons, including mustard gas, were banned by The Chemical Weapons Convention of 1997. However, mustard gas was used as a chemical warfare agent during many international political conflicts and wars of the twentieth century. A known, highly toxic, mutagenic carcinogen in animal models and an established carcinogen in humans,1 mustard gas has caused much human suffering, invalidating and even killing people. The acute toxic manifestations of exposure to mustard gas consist of epithelial detachment, necrosis in the respiratory system, skin and eyes and sometimes gastric complications. The long-term health consequences of such exposure include epithelial fibrosis and cancer and have been the subject of long-term follow-up studies, especially among military personnel and inhabitants of war-stricken areas in which chemical weapons were used.2 So, does the study by Mukaida et al 3 bring anything new to the existing knowledge on the consequences of long-term exposure to mustard gas? We are convinced that that answer is yes, and here we will dwell on the reasons why.nnFirst of all, the …