TY - JOUR
T1 - Cancer incidence and mortality in firefighters
T2 - A state-of-the-art review and meta-analysis
AU - Soteriades, Elpidoforos S.
AU - Kim, Jaeyoung
AU - Christophi, Costas A.
AU - Kales, Stefanos N.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, Asian Pacific Organization for Cancer Prevention.
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - Objective: A systematic literature review and meta-analysis was conducted on the association between firefighting and cancer. Methods: A comprehensive literature search of databases including Medline, EMBASE, Biosis, NIOSHTIC2, Web of Science, Cancerlit, and HealthStar, for the period between 1966 to January 2007, was conducted. We also retrieved additional studies by manual searching. Results: A total of 49 studies were included in the meta-analysis. We found statistically significant associations between firefighting and cancers of bladder, brain and CNS, and colorectal cancers, consistent with several previous risk estimates. We also found statistically significant associations of firefighting with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, skin melanoma, prostate, and testicular cancer. For kidney, Hodgkin's lymphoma, leukemia, lymphosarcoma and reticulosarcoma, multiple myeloma, and pancreatic cancer, we found some statistically significant but less consistent results. For all other cancers evaluated (esophageal, laryngeal, oral and pharyngeal, liver and gallbladder, lung, lymphatic and hematopoietic, non-melanoma skin cancer, stomach, and urinary cancer) we did not find any statistically significant associations. Conclusions: Although our meta-analysis showed statistically significant increased risks of either cancer incidence or mortality of certain cancers in association with firefighting, a number of important limitations of the underlying studies exist, which, precluded our ability to arrive at definitive conclusions regarding causation.
AB - Objective: A systematic literature review and meta-analysis was conducted on the association between firefighting and cancer. Methods: A comprehensive literature search of databases including Medline, EMBASE, Biosis, NIOSHTIC2, Web of Science, Cancerlit, and HealthStar, for the period between 1966 to January 2007, was conducted. We also retrieved additional studies by manual searching. Results: A total of 49 studies were included in the meta-analysis. We found statistically significant associations between firefighting and cancers of bladder, brain and CNS, and colorectal cancers, consistent with several previous risk estimates. We also found statistically significant associations of firefighting with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, skin melanoma, prostate, and testicular cancer. For kidney, Hodgkin's lymphoma, leukemia, lymphosarcoma and reticulosarcoma, multiple myeloma, and pancreatic cancer, we found some statistically significant but less consistent results. For all other cancers evaluated (esophageal, laryngeal, oral and pharyngeal, liver and gallbladder, lung, lymphatic and hematopoietic, non-melanoma skin cancer, stomach, and urinary cancer) we did not find any statistically significant associations. Conclusions: Although our meta-analysis showed statistically significant increased risks of either cancer incidence or mortality of certain cancers in association with firefighting, a number of important limitations of the underlying studies exist, which, precluded our ability to arrive at definitive conclusions regarding causation.
KW - Cancer incidence
KW - Firefighters
KW - Meta-analysis
KW - Mortality
KW - Review
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U2 - 10.31557/APJCP.2019.20.11.3221
DO - 10.31557/APJCP.2019.20.11.3221
M3 - Review article
C2 - 31759344
AN - SCOPUS:85075561304
SN - 1513-7368
VL - 20
SP - 3221
EP - 3231
JO - Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
JF - Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
IS - 11
ER -