Ambient air pollution, cancer risk, and survival using an American Cancer Society prospective cohort

Diver, W. Ryan

Ambient air pollution, cancer risk, and survival using an American Cancer Society prospective cohort

Document Type

Doctoral thesis
Published Version

Author

Diver, W. Ryan

Director

Turner, Michelle C

Publication Date

2025-04-02

Pages

243 p.

Embargo date

2027-04-02T02:00:00Z

Citation

Diver, W. Ambient air pollution, cancer risk, and survival using an American Cancer Society prospective cohort. Universitat Pompeu Fabra; 2025. handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10803/694346

This citation was generated automatically.

Doctoral program

Programa de Doctorat en Biomedicina

Abstract

Outdoor air pollution is an established lung carcinogen. In this thesis, we examined associations of outdoor air pollution and incidence of cancers other than lung cancer, as well as the role of air pollution in lung cancer survival. Ambient air pollution data was linked to ~108,000 participants in the U.S. Cancer Prevention Study-II Nutrition cohort and updated in a time-varying manner annually during follow-up from 1992-2017. Associations with cancer incidence were examined. Coarse particulates and gaseous pollutant indicators were adversely associated with colorectal, cervical, kidney, melanoma skin cancers, as well as with incidence of several hematologic cancer subtypes. Although recent air pollution exposures were not adversely associated with lung cancer survival overall, some pollutants were associated with poorer survival in patients with early-stage disease. This thesis suggests that outdoor air pollution may be involved in development of some cancers beyond lung cancer. Findings with lung cancer survival should be evaluated in future research.
La contaminación del aire exterior es un carcinógeno pulmonar reconocido. En esta tesis, se examinan las asociaciones entre la contaminación del aire y la incidencia de otros tipos de cáncer, además del de pulmón, y su papel en la supervivencia de este último. Se vincularon datos de contaminación del aire con ~108.000 participantes de la Cohorte de Nutrición del Estudio de Prevención del Cáncer II de EE.UU., actualizados anualmente durante el seguimiento de 1992 a 2017. Se examinaron asociaciones con la incidencia del cáncer. Los contaminantes gaseosos y partículas gruesas se asociaron adversamente con los cánceres colorrectal, cervical, renal, melanoma y varios subtipos hematológicos. Aunque las exposiciones recientes no se asociaron con la supervivencia general en cáncer de pulmón, algunos contaminantes sí se relacionaron con peor supervivencia en pacientes con enfermedad en etapas tempranas. La tesis sugiere que la contaminación del aire podría influir en varios tipos de cáncer. Los hallazgos sobre la supervivencia requieren más estudio.

Keywords

Cancer, Air pollution, Particulate matter, Survival, Prospective cohort, Cáncer, Contaminación del aire, Materia particulada, Supervivencia, Cohorte prospectiva