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Urinary Concentrations of Endocrine-Disrupting Metals and Prevalent Breast Cancer in US Women

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Abstract

The toxic metals cadmium, lead, and mercury are endocrine-disrupting agents that could produce estrogenic effects involving breast carcinogenesis. In this study, we further explored the relationship between exposure to these metals and prevalent breast cancer among female participants, aged 20 years or older, in the 2007–2016 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Exposure was determined by measuring urinary concentrations of metals using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Urine creatinine-corrected concentrations of metals were calculated for each study participant. Multivariate logistic regression models were constructed to examine the association between urinary metals and prevalent breast cancer, adjusting for potential confounders. Of the 3352 study participants, 106 had been diagnosed with breast cancer (weighted prevalence, 3.13%). The results show that women with breast cancer had significantly higher urinary concentrations of lead and cadmium (both p < 0.0001) than those without breast cancer. After adjusting for all the covariates included in the study, however, only urinary lead was shown to be significantly associated with increased prevalence of breast cancer, with an odds ratio of 2.95 (95% CI: 1.13, 7.70) in the highest quartile of urinary lead concentrations (≥ 0.71 µg/g creatinine) as compared with the lowest quartile. No statistically significant associations were observed between urine cadmium or mercury levels and breast cancer. This study demonstrates a potential association between lead exposure and prevalent breast cancer among US women. Prospective and mechanistic studies are warranted to further investigate this interaction and explore the role of lead in breast carcinogenesis.

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Data Availability

The data analyzed in the present study are available in the NHANES repository, https://wwwn.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes/Default.aspx.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. MD Program, Mercer University School of Medicine, Macon, GA, USA

    Belinda Carrie Bell

  2. Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Fort Valley State University, Fort Valley, GA, USA

    Jianmin Zhu

  3. Department of Community Medicine, Mercer University School of Medicine, 1501 Mercer University Drive, Macon, GA, 31207, USA

    Yudan Wei

Authors
  1. Belinda Carrie Bell
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  2. Jianmin Zhu
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  3. Yudan Wei
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study’s conception and design. Data collection and analysis were performed by JZ and YW. The first draft of the manuscript was written by BB and YW, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors reviewed and approved the final paper.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yudan Wei.

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Ethics Approval

The survey was approved by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) Research Ethics Review Board.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Bell, B.C., Zhu, J. & Wei, Y. Urinary Concentrations of Endocrine-Disrupting Metals and Prevalent Breast Cancer in US Women. Biol Trace Elem Res 201, 4230–4237 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12011-022-03512-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12011-022-03512-z

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