Isabella He

Air Pollution with NO2 in Relation to Breast Cancer Risk: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Comparing Postmenopausal and Premenopausal Women

Started Mar. 21, 2023

Abstract or project description

Breast cancer is the world’s most prevalent cancer in women**.** Chemicals with endocrine-disrupting effects and carcinogenic substances are widely present in air pollution, raising concerns of associations between increased air pollution and breast cancer. Multiple studies have been performed in investigating the association between air pollution and breast cancer. We performed a systematic review and a meta-analysis to assess the association between NO2, a major component of traffic-related air pollution, and breast cancer in premenopausal and postmenopausal women. This systematic review includes 26 studies published before June 30, 2023 with a total of 5,982,610 participants and 209,953 cases. To our knowledge, this is the most complete meta-analysis on this topic. Our findings demonstrate a positive association between NO2 exposure and breast cancer risk in postmenopausal women: OR = 1.019 (95% CI: 1.010, 1.028), p < 0.0001 for 10-µg/m3 increase. However, we did not identify a significant association between NO2 exposure and breast cancer risk in premenopausal women: OR = 1.001 (95% CI: 0.987, 1.016), p = 0.8451 for 10-µg/m3 increase in NO2. The statistically significant positive association between NO2 exposure and breast cancer risk in postmenopausal women underscores the potential impact of traffic-related air pollution on health.