ArticleAmerican journal of epidemiology2019
Toenail-Based Metal Concentrations and Young-Onset Breast Cancer.
Article in American journal of epidemiology, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It has been retracted, and should not be counted. Cited by 16 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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
16 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 25 citations in OpenAlex.
- Relationship Between Arsenic in Biological Media and Breast Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Biological trace element research · 2025Pooled it
- Heavy metals in biological samples of cancer patients: a systematic literature review.Biometals : an international journal on the role of metal ions in biology, biochemistry, and medicine · 2024Pooled it
- The possible role of arsenic and gene-arsenic interactions in susceptibility to breast cancer: a systematic review.Reviews on environmental health · 2021Pooled it
- Environmental exposures and breast cancer risk in the context of underlying susceptibility: A systematic review of the epidemiological literature.Environmental research · 2020Pooled it
- Assessing Lead Exposure by Biological Matrices Analysis and Links to Breast Cancer: A Critical Review of Experimental and Epidemiological Findings.European journal of breast health · 2025Article
- Heavy metal burden in the urine and cancer risk.Frontiers in oncology · 2025Article
- Toenail and serum levels as biomarkers of iron status in pre- and postmenopausal women: correlations and stability over eight-year follow-up.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Epigenetic alterations of CXCL5 in Cr(VI)-induced carcinogenesis.The Science of the total environment · 2022Article
- Health significant alarms of toxic carcinogenic risk consumption of blood meal metals contamination in poultry at a gold mining neighborhood, northern Thailand.Environmental geochemistry and health · 2022Article
- Exposures in nail salons to trace elements in nail polish from impurities or pigment ingredients - A pilot study.International journal of hygiene and environmental health · 2021Article
- Association between rice consumption and risk of cancer incidence in the California Teachers Study.Cancer causes & control : CCC · 2020Article
- Keratinous biomarker of mercury exposure associated with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis risk in a nationwide U.S. study.Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis & frontotemporal degeneration · 2020Article
- Toenail metal concentrations and age at menopause: A prospective study.Environmental epidemiology (Philadelphia, Pa.) · 2020Article
- Metals and trace elements in relation to body mass index in a prospective study of US women.Environmental research · 2020Article
- RETRACTION: "TOENAIL-BASED METAL CONCENTRATIONS AND YOUNG-ONSET BREAST CANCER".American journal of epidemiology · 2020Article
- Environmental exposures during windows of susceptibility for breast cancer: a framework for prevention research.Breast cancer research : BCR · 2019Review
Corrections and comments
- Retraction · 2020-04-02Error in Analyses ·
- Retracted
Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Several metals have carcinogenic properties, but their associations with breast cancer are not established. We studied cadmium, a metalloestrogen, and 9 other metals-arsenic, cobalt, chromium, copper, mercury, molybdenum, lead, tin, and vanadium--in relation to young-onset breast cancer (diagnosis age <50 years), which tends to be more aggressive than and have a different risk profile from later-onset disease. Recent metal exposure was measured by assessing element concentrations, via inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, in toenail clippings of 1,217 disease-discordant sister pairs in the US-based Sister (2003-2009) and Two Sister (2008-2010) studies. Conditional logistic regression was used to calculate odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals. After correcting for differential calendar time of sample collection, no statistically significant associations were observed between any metals and breast cancer. Vanadium had the largest odds ratio (for fourth vs. first quartile, odds ratio = 1.36, 95% confidence interval: 0.84, 2.21; P for trend = 0.17). Cadmium was associated with a small increase in risk, with no evidence of a dose-response relationship (for fourth vs. first quartile, odds ratio = 1.15, 95% confidence interval: 0.82, 1.60; P for trend = 0.67). Positive associations between urinary cadmium concentrations and breast cancer have been reported in case-control studies, but we observed no such association between young-onset breast cancer and toenail concentrations of any assessed metals.
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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.