Persistent Organic Pollutants and Breast Cancers (POPCASE)

Exposure to certain classes of chemical contaminants, including certain persistent organic pollutants (POPs) with a character of endocrine disruptors, could be one of the factors that lead to increase incidence of breast cancer in the Western world . However, the causal role of POPs in the onset of breast cancer remains nowadays unproven. Preliminary epidemiological studies on the impact of these environmental factors in breast cancer etiology have ignored the critical periods of exposure. Similarly, they have considered a limited number of pollutants (not including possible joint or synergistic effects between individual compounds) and did not distinguish the different breast cancer subtypes may have different etiologies or even of genetic susceptibility factors (POP polymorphism of detoxification enzymes). Thus, POPCASE study examines the association between the presence of breast cancer and the levels and exposure profiles to a group of POPs measured in adipose tissue (AT) and blood, in particular using spectrometric methods developed by the team LABERCA (Nantes, France). These internal levels of POPs (organochlorine pesticides, dioxins, PCBs, brominated flame retardants) will be measured both quantitatively (tissue concentrations) and qualitative (relative proportions of different pollutants sought).