SynthesisEnvironmental health perspectives2007
DDT and breast cancer in young women: new data on the significance of age at exposure.
Synthesis in Environmental health perspectives, 2007. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 184 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
184 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 472 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Relationship Between Climate Change and Breast Cancer and Its Management and Preventative Implications in South Africa.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Pooled it
- Exposure to Organochlorine Pesticides and Female Breast Cancer Risk According to Molecular Receptors Expression: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Epidemiological Evidence.Current environmental health reports · 2023Pooled it
- Environmental exposures and breast cancer risk in the context of underlying susceptibility: A systematic review of the epidemiological literature.Environmental research · 2020Pooled it
- DDT/DDE and breast cancer: a meta-analysis.Regulatory toxicology and pharmacology : RTP · 2013Pooled it
- Endocrine Disruptors and Gynecological Malignancies.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Field cancerization, accelerated aging, and immunosuppression: the rapid rise of hormone-sensitive and early-onset breast cancer.NPJ breast cancer · 2025Review
- Global Evidence on Monitoring Human Pesticide Exposure.Journal of xenobiotics · 2025Review
- Associations of area-level and individual-level sociodemographic factors with adolescent phenotypes linked to subsequent cancer risk.Reproductive toxicology (Elmsford, N.Y.) · 2025Article
- Father's occupation and colorectal cancer in his adult offspring.Journal of the National Cancer Institute · 2025Article
- Grandmaternal perinatal serum polychlorinated biphenyls and prevalence of obesity in adult daughters and granddaughters.Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.) · 2025Article
- Parental loss at age birth to 21 years and daughters' breast cancer and tumor characteristics.JNCI cancer spectrum · 2025Article
- Persistent organic pollutants and endogenous sex-related hormones in Hispanic/Latino adults: The Hispanic Community health study/study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL).Environmental research · 2025Article
- Stress across the lifecourse and adult mental and physical health outcomes.Annals of behavioral medicine : a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine · 2025Article
- Endocrine disruptors and children's health.Turkish journal of medical sciences · 2025Review
- Bisphenol A and DDT disrupt adipocyte function in the mammary gland: implications for breast cancer risk and progression.Frontiers in oncology · 2025Review
- Triazine herbicide prometryn alters epoxide hydrolase activity and increases cytochrome P450 metabolites in murine livers via lipidomic profiling.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Applying Cell Painting in Non-Tumorigenic Breast Cells to Understand Impacts of Common Chemical Exposures.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Pesticides impacts on human health and the environment with their mechanisms of action and possible countermeasures.Heliyon · 2024Review
- Investigating the levels of organochlorine pesticides in human milk at three lactational stages: an intensive Ghanaian study.Environmental monitoring and assessment · 2024Article
- Impact of DDT on women's health in Bangladesh: escalating breast cancer risk and disturbing menstrual cycle.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
124 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPrevious studies of DDT and breast cancer assessed exposure later in life when the breast may not have been vulnerable, after most DDT had been eliminated, and after DDT had been banned.
objectivesWe investigated whether DDT exposure in young women during the period of peak DDT use predicts breast cancer.
methodsWe conducted a prospective, nested case-control study with a median time to diagnosis of 17 years using blood samples obtained from young women during 1959-1967. Subjects were members of the Child Health and Development Studies, Oakland, California, who provided blood samples 1-3 days after giving birth (mean age, 26 years). Cases (n = 129) developed breast cancer before the age of 50 years. Controls (n = 129) were matched to cases on birth year. Serum was assayed for p,p'-DDT, the active ingredient of DDT; o,p'-DDT, a low concentration contaminant; and p,p'-DDE, the most abundant p,p'-DDT metabolite.
resultsHigh levels of serum p,p'-DDT predicted a statistically significant 5-fold increased risk of breast cancer among women who were born after 1931. These women were under 14 years of age in 1945, when DDT came into widespread use, and mostly under 20 years as DDT use peaked. Women who were not exposed to p,p'-DDT before 14 years of age showed no association between p,p'-DDT and breast cancer (p = 0.02 for difference by age).
conclusionsExposure to p,p'-DDT early in life may increase breast cancer risk. Many U.S. women heavily exposed to DDT in childhood have not yet reached 50 years of age. The public health significance of DDT exposure in early life may be large.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.