Superfund Research Program

September 2022

Hot Publication

Most environmental studies that assess health risks from chemical exposures have focused on evaluating relationships between individual, well-known chemicals and health effects. A new study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) SRP Center identified understudied chemicals that frequently occur in the same products as those linked to breast cancer, which could inform studies on how exposure to chemical mixtures influences disease risk.

Breast cancer — the leading cause of cancer-related death in women — has increasingly been linked to chemicals commonly found in the environment, from consumer products to food and water sources. The researchers used databases containing chemical inventories and cancer information to efficiently categorize chemicals based on their association with breast cancer. They sifted through data on thousands of chemicals to identify compounds that frequently occur in the environment and are understudied in their relation to breast cancer risk.

The team then used the data to determine which of the understudied chemicals most often occur alongside chemicals with known breast cancer associations. They compared the chemical and structural similarities between the understudied group and the breast cancer chemicals to identify those that should be prioritized in future toxicological studies.

The researchers selected 50 understudied chemicals and organized them based on their patterns of co-exposure and similarities to breast cancer chemicals. According to the authors, these chemicals — on their own and in mixtures — may warrant further investigation to understand how everyday exposures may influence breast cancer risk.

To learn more, please refer to the following sources:

  • Koval L, Dionisio KL, Friedman KP, Isaacs KK, Rager JE. 2022. Environmental mixtures and breast cancer: identifying co-exposure patterns between understudied vs breast cancer-associated chemicals using chemical inventory informatics. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol doi:10.1038/s41370-022-00451-8 PMID:35710593