Lung Cancer Risk in Relation to Jobs Held in a Nationwide Case-Control Study in Iran Publisher Pubmed



Hosseini B^{1, 2} ; Olsson A¹ ; Bouaoun L¹ ; Hall A³ ; Hadji M^{2, 4} ; Rashidian H² ; Naghibzadehtahami A^{5, 6} ; Marzban M⁷ ; Najafi F^{8, 9} ; Haghdoost AA¹⁰ ; Boffetta P^{11, 12} ; Kamangar F¹³ ; Pukkala E^{14, 15} ; Etemadi A¹⁶ Show All Authors
Source: Occupational and Environmental Medicine Published:2022

Abstract

Background Globally, lung cancer is the most frequent occupational cancer, but the risk associated with the occupations or occupational environment in Iran is not clear. We aimed to assess occupations with the risk of lung cancer. Methods We used the IROPICAN nationwide case-control study data including 658 incident lung cancer cases and 3477 controls. We assessed the risk of lung cancer in relation to ever working in major groups of International Standard Classification of Occupations, high-risk occupations for lung cancer and duration of employment and lung cancer subtype among construction workers and farmers while controlling for cigarette smoking and opium consumption. We used unconditional regression logistic models to estimate ORs for the association between increased lung cancer risk and occupations. Results We observed elevated ORs for lung cancer in male construction workers (OR=1.4; 95% CI: 1.0 to 1.8), petroleum industry workers (OR=3.2; 95% CI: 1.1 to 9.8), female farmers (OR=2.6; 95% CI: 1.3 to 5.3) and female bakers (OR=5.5; 95% CI: 1.0 to 29.8). A positive trend by the duration of employment was observed for male construction workers (p< 0.001). Increased risk of squamous cell carcinoma was observed in male construction workers (OR=1.9; 95% CI: 1.2 to 3.0) and female farmers (OR=4.3; 95% CI: 1.1 to 17.2), who also experienced an increased risk of adenocarcinoma (OR=3.8; 95% CI: 1.4 to 9.9). Discussion Although we observed associations between some occupations and lung cancer consistent with the literature, further studies with larger samples focusing on exposures are needed to better understand the occupational lung cancer burden in Iran. © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2022. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.