A Correlation Study of Organochlorine Levels in Serum, Breast Adipose Tissue, and Gluteal Adipose Tissue among Breast Cancer Cases in India

Abstract

We used data from a breast cancer pilot study carried out in Kerala, India in 1997, for which organochlorine levels were measured in three biological media, blood serum, breast adipose tissue, and gluteal adipose tissue, of 37 fasting breast cancer cases (pretreatment). Our objective was to investigate the relationships between organochlorine concentrations in different biological media. Gas-liquid chromatography determined serum, breast adipose, and gluteal adipose tissue levels of dichlorodiphenyltricholorethane, dichlorodiphenyldichloroethane, B-benzene hexachloride, and polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congeners, PCB-153 and PCB-180. Correlation plots were made and Spearman correlation coefficients (r) calculated for breast adipose tissue versus serum, gluteal adipose tissue versus serum, and breast adipose versus gluteal adipose tissue. We also examined paired ratios of all summary statistics. There were strong correlations among serum, breast adipose tissue, and gluteal adipose tissue concentrations for most organochlorines analyzed, one exception being gluteal versus serum for PCB-153. The correlations for all other comparisons ranged from r = 0.65 to 0.94. Serum (ng/g) versus adipose ratios approached 1:1 for most of the organochlorine pesticide comparisons and did not vary by summary statistic. To our knowledge, this is the first study to use three different media from fasting subjects and to comprehensively investigate the relationship between organochlorines measured across the three media for both organochlorine pesticides and PCBs. These data indicate that blood serum reflects the present body burden of a range of organochlorines to the same extent as adipose tissue, and they support the view that serum may be collected in lieu of adipose tissue to obtain similar information. However, such measurements are a combination of both recent exposures and past exposures, which have metabolized slowly and may still persist. Therefore, investigators should use caution when assigning a level as lifetime body burden. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2005;14(5):1113 -24)

Serum organochlorines and breast cancer: a case–control study among African-American women

“…Levels of DDE in serum and adipose tissue have been shown to be highly correlated in many studies (64). For PCBs this correlation has been less well studied, though it appears to be lower than for DDE (64).…”

“…Levels of DDE in serum and adipose tissue have been shown to be highly correlated in many studies (64). For PCBs this correlation has been less well studied, though it appears to be lower than for DDE (64). However, correlations among levels of PCBs in serum and breast milk, which have been better-studied, tend to be relatively high, although again correlations for DDE are greater (65).…”

Polychlorinated biphenyls and polybrominated biphenyl ethers in adipose tissue and matched serum from an E-waste recycling area (Wenling, China)

“…The partitioning of chemicals between adipose tissue and serum, generally expressed as adipose/serum ratio in published literature (Rusiecki et al, 2005;Stellman et al, 1998;Wolff et al, 1982), is an important parameter used in physiologically based pharmacokinetic models. In our study, the strong associations were found between adipose tissue and matched serum concentrations of all detectable individual compounds except for BDE-209 (Spearman correlation analysis, p<0.001 for each).…”

“…The partitioning relationship of a specific compound in adipose tissue and blood is an important parameter employed in physiologically based pharmacokinetic models, and is strongly useful for evaluating the toxicity of chemicals and their health risks to humans. To date, several groups have reported the partition ratio (the ratio equal to adipose tissue concentration divided by its serum concentration) of individual PCB congeners (Rusiecki et al, 2005;Stellman et al, 1998;Wolff et al, 1982). Nevertheless, to the best of our knowledge, no information of PBDEs partitioning relationship is available between adipose tissue and blood in humans.…”

Impact of Environmental Contaminants on Breast Cancer / Wpływ Zanieczyszczenia Środowiska Na Raka Piersi

“…However, epidemiologic studies concerning exposure to PCB and breast cancer risk have been controversial. Several earlier studies suggested a positive association [38][39][40][41][42][43][44], other studies showed no increased breast cancer risk [45][46][47][48][49][50]. More recent data suggested that the CYP1A1 m2 polymorphisms might add an increased risk to the etiology of breast cancer in women with environmental exposure to PCBs [51].…”