Plastic-associated chemicals linked to lung cancer deaths
A three-chemical blood score was associated with higher relative lung cancer death risk in the top versus bottom quarter (hazard ratio 1.86).
Our read
Biomarkers- Studied:
- Cohort study of ever smokers, 20 years, against the lowest quantile
- What changed:
- Death from lung cancer was higher in the highest quantile compared with the lowest (HR of 1.86)
- The catch:
- The study measured chemicals rather than plastic particles
- In the record:
- The 5th paper on perfluorooctanesulfonic acid with results in people; 14 on record in all.
- Why it’s aging research:
- A leading disease of aging, its risks or menopause.
Editor of record: Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
In an observational study, researchers analyzed blood samples from 177 people who later developed lung cancer and 791 who did not, all with a smoking history in a US cancer-screening cohort. The sample set included 245 samples collected within five years before lung cancer diagnosis and 1,200 from participants without a diagnosis. Follow-up for lung cancer deaths continued for 20 years after the original study ended.
The researchers combined two long-lasting industrial chemicals and one plasticizer, a chemical that makes plastics more flexible, into a blood score. They developed the score using samples from five study centers and tested it using samples from five others. Higher scores were linked to greater lung cancer mortality across groups defined by age, sex, smoking history, cancer type and stage. Individual chemical levels were not associated with developing lung cancer.
Why it matters
Lung cancer is an age-related disease. The authors proposed that the blood score may help measure exposure and inform assessments of the risk of dying from lung cancer.
Caveats
This observational analysis cannot show that the chemicals caused lung cancer deaths; it measured chemicals rather than plastic particles. The findings concern people with a smoking history, not people who never smoked.
- Monoisononyl phthalate
- Perfluorohexanesulfonic acid
- Perfluorooctanesulfonic acid
- Plastic-associated chemicals
- Lung cancer
- Humans
The paper
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Clinical Cancer Research, Mar 4, 2026, Open access
Comments
Be the first to comment.