Abstract 4695: Elevated levels of biomarkers of volatile organic carcinogens and toxicants in Chinese women who regularly cook at home

Abstract

Chinese women in Asia have higher rates of lung cancer than in many other places in the world. In China, the age standardized incidence rate for female lung cancer is 19.9 per 100,000 and in Singapore it is 17.5, while rates are far lower (1.5-9.2) in countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia, India, and Russia. Cigarette smoking is not the major risk factor for lung cancer in these women, nor is secondhand tobacco smoke exposure. Some studies demonstrate the role of fumes from indoor heating under special circumstances. However, multiple epidemiologic studies document an association between lung cancer in Chinese women and Chinese-style cooking with oils heated at high temperatures. Carcinogens and toxicants have been identified in fumes generated during high temperature cooking with various oils but there have been no biomarker studies to assess carcinogen and toxicant uptake in Chinese women who regularly cook at home. We quantified urinary mercapturic acid biomarkers of exposure to the volatile compounds acrolein, crotonaldehyde, benzene, 1,3-butadiene, and ethylene oxide; and urinary metabolites of the non-volatile combustion products pyrene and phenanthrene in 54 non-smoking, non alcohol-drinking Chinese women who reported regularly doing home cooking and 50 non-smoking, non-alcohol drinking women randomly selected from the Singapore Chinese Health Study as controls. Compared with controls, women who engaged in regular home cooking had significantly higher levels of mercapturic acids of acrolein [geometric mean 1959 pmol/mg creatinine (95% CI 1554-2467) vs.1370 (95% CI 1077-1742), P = 0.038], crotonaldehyde [geometric mean 231.6 pmol/mg creatinine (95% CI 193-277) vs. 142.2 (95% CI 118-171) P = 0.0004], and benzene [geometric mean 0.58 pmol/mg creatinine (95% CI 0.44-0.78) vs. 0.18 (95% CI 0.14-0.24) P < 0.0001]. No significant differences were found in levels of mercapturic acids of 1,3-butadiene or metabolites of pyrene and phenanthrene between the two groups whereas levels of the ethylene oxide mercapturic acid were significantly higher in the controls than in the cooking group. The higher levels of the mercapturic acid of benzene, a multi-organ carcinogen, in the women who cooked, are particularly notable. The results of this study showing increased exposure to the volatile toxicants and carcinogens acrolein, crotonaldehyde, and benzene in Chinese women who regularly cook provide a plausible lead for further investigating the role of volatile compounds generated during cooking as causes of lung cancer.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 4695.