Aim: In India, breast cancer is the most common cancer among women and has overtaken cervix cancer, which was the frequent cancer a decade ago. The etiology is remains unknown but environmental, genetic, nutritional and hormonal factors are established as contributory risk factors. The majority of breast cancer have been proposed to be of environmental origin. Among the environmental factors organochlorine pesticide have been suggested to play a causative role in the etiology of breast cancer. Organochlorine pesticides are widely dispersed and persist in the environment, act as xenoestrogen, get stored in adipose tissues and act as tumor promoter.
Method: Concentrations of organochlorine pesticides were measured in three biological media, blood, breast adipose tissue, and breast tumor tissue, of 205 breast cancer cases. Gas-liquid chromatography determined blood, breast adipose, and tumor tissue levels of metabolites of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and isomers of hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH).
Results: The isomers of hexachlorocyclohexane such as alpha, beta gamma and delta and metabolites of DDT such as p,p-DDT, o,p-DDT, p,p-DDE, and p,p-DDD were frequently detected. Total organochlorine pesticide level in the blood samples were found higher in malignant group (n=116) i.e., 95.93 ppb, which is about 1.8 times higher than the mean of benign group (n=89) 52.43 ppb and about 2.7 times higher than control group (n=50) 34.36 ppb. In tumor tissue concentration were found about 1.4 times higher in malignant group (4601.05 ppb) when compared it with benign group (3206.11 ppb). And the burden of total organochlorine pesticides levels in adipose tissue of women with malignant (9176.15 ppb) and benign disease (7119.01 ppb), which is about 1.2 times higher in malignant group.
Conclusion: If organochlorine pesticides are found to be the source and to play any causal role in development of breast cancer, then it might become possible to prevent breast cancer.