ArticleEnvironmental health perspectives2017
Insecticide Use and Breast Cancer Risk among Farmers' Wives in the Agricultural Health Study.
Article in Environmental health perspectives, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 36 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
36 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 100 citations in OpenAlex.
- Environmental exposures and breast cancer risk in the context of underlying susceptibility: A systematic review of the epidemiological literature.Environmental research · 2020Pooled it
- Endocrine-Disrupting Pesticides as Drivers of Human Disease: Mechanistic Toxicology and Life-Course Health Effects.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Updating our quantification of non-occupational pesticide exposure in agricultural settings: A revised algorithm for the Agricultural Health Study.Environmental advances · 2026Article
- Residential proximity to Superfund sites and breast cancer incidence in a nationwide cohort.Environmental epidemiology (Philadelphia, Pa.) · 2026Article
- Multifaceted mechanisms by which environmental endocrine-disrupting chemicals promote cancer progression: crosstalk among carcinogenesis, immunity, and metabolic reprogramming: narrative mini-review.Frontiers in molecular biosciences · 2026Review
- Article
- Artificial intelligence improves risk stratification for breast cancer recurrence and mortality in women exposed to pesticides: a call for reassessment of stratification criteria.Frontiers in oncology · 2026Article
- Leveraging Administrative Health Databases to Address Health Challenges in Farming Populations: Scoping Review and Bibliometric Analysis (1975-2024).JMIR public health and surveillance · 2025Article
- Potential Role of Glyphosate, Glyphosate-Based Herbicides, and AMPA in Breast Cancer Development: A Review of Human and Human Cell-Based Studies.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2024Review
- Exposure to Pesticides and Breast Cancer in an Agricultural Region in Brazil.Environmental science & technology · 2024Article
- Cumulative environmental quality is associated with breast cancer incidence differentially by summary stage and urbanicity.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Factors affecting urinary organophosphate pesticide metabolite levels among Californian agricultural community members.The Science of the total environment · 2023Article
- Exposures to pesticides and risk of cancer: Evaluation of recent epidemiological evidence in humans and paths forward.International journal of cancer · 2023Article
- Occupational exposure to pesticides dysregulates systemic Th1/Th2/Th17 cytokines and correlates with poor clinical outcomes in breast cancer patients.Frontiers in immunology · 2023Article
- Brief research report pesticide occupational exposure leads to significant inflammatory changes in normal mammary breast tissue.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
- Article
- Breast Cancer Incidence among Female Workers by Different Occupations and Industries: A Longitudinal Population-Based Matched Case-Control Study in Taiwan.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Article
- Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor Activation Produces Heat Shock Protein 90 and 70 Overexpression, Prostaglandin E2/Wnt/β-Catenin Signaling Disruption, and Cell Proliferation in MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 Cells after 24 h and 14 Days of Chlorpyrifos Treatment.Chemical research in toxicology · 2021Article
- Pilot study on the urinary excretion of the glyphosate metabolite aminomethylphosphonic acid and breast cancer risk: The Multiethnic Cohort study.Environmental pollution (Barking, Essex : 1987) · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundSome epidemiologic and laboratory studies suggest that insecticides are related to increased breast cancer risk, but the evidence is inconsistent. Women engaged in agricultural work or who reside in agricultural areas may experience appreciable exposures to a wide range of insecticides.
objectiveWe examined associations between insecticide use and breast cancer incidence among wives of pesticide applicators (farmers) in the prospective Agricultural Health Study.
methodsFarmers and their wives provided information on insecticide use, demographics, and reproductive history at enrollment in 1993-1997 and in 5-y follow-up interviews. Cancer incidence was determined via cancer registries. Among 30,594 wives with no history of breast cancer before enrollment, we examined breast cancer risk in relation to the women's and their husbands' insecticide use using Cox proportional hazards regression to estimate adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs).
resultsDuring an average 14.7-y follow-up, 39% of the women reported ever using insecticides, and 1,081 were diagnosed with breast cancer. Although ever use of insecticides overall was not associated with breast cancer risk, risk was elevated among women who had ever used the organophosphates chlorpyrifos [HR=1.4 (95% CI: 1.0, 2.0)] or terbufos [HR=1.5 (95% CI: 1.0, 2.1)], with nonsignificantly increased risks for coumaphos [HR=1.5 (95% CI: 0.9, 2.5)] and heptachlor [HR=1.5 (95% CI: 0.7, 2.9)]. Risk in relation to the wives' use was associated primarily with premenopausal breast cancer. We found little evidence of differential risk by tumor estrogen receptor status. Among women who did not apply pesticides, the husband's use of fonofos was associated with elevated risk, although no exposure-response trend was observed.
conclusionUse of several organophosphate insecticides was associated with elevated breast cancer risk. However, associations for the women's and husbands' use of these insecticides showed limited concordance. Ongoing cohort follow-up may help clarify the relationship, if any, between individual insecticide exposures and breast cancer risk. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP1295.
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