Researchers from Granada determine a series of factors in the work environment related to cancer
This finding, published in the prestigious magazine Environment International, could help prevention and determination of cancer risk factors in the workplace.
The Basic and Clinical Oncology research group of the Biosanitary Research Institute of Granada (ibs.GRANADA), led by the physician of the San Cecilio Clinical University Hospital and professor of Radiology at the University of Granada, Nicolás Olea, has designed a series of biomarkers that help determine maximum thresholds for exposure to chemicals that can be carcinogenic.
Occupational cancer is caused by exposure to carcinogens at work and usually appears years after the exposure occurred. While in Europe work-related cancer is already the leading cause of death, in our country, the number of cases of occupational cancer is underestimated, identifying an association between work conditions and the origin of the disease in only a small part (0,1%) of the cases diagnosed.
Among the many reasons that justify it, is the difficulty of identifying the carcinogen to which the worker is exposed, as a possible cause of cancer. However, recent data from the Community of Madrid warn that about half of the workers exposed to a carcinogenic agent are also exposed to four other carcinogenic (and / or mutagenic) elements, which warns about the importance of what in the world of work it is known as multi-exposure. In addition, different investigations have shown that the interaction between different exposures to carcinogenic agents has as a consequence, in many cases, an increase in the probability of developing cancer.
This study, developed by scientists from Granada within a European multinational group, proposes the systematic use of biomarkers of effect in the biomonitoring of exposure in the working population, and offers an overview of the key biomarkers to determine the relationship between exposures. environmental chemicals with associated health effects. The research results highlight the diagnostic value that monitoring exposed individuals would have when considering exposure to mixtures of chemicals.
The article, published in the journal Environmental International, describes several biomarkers of effect indicated for monitoring and surveillance of exposure in occupational settings. These findings include information on the mode of action of carcinogens, which applies not only to exposure to individual chemicals but also to complex chemical mixtures. These findings have great potential to improve human health risk assessment in the 21st century, as they link the individual's overall exposure (exposome) to the process and incorporate novel technologies (in silico methods, QSAR, PBK/D modeling, and "omics" information).
The application of this new strategy, which includes both the measures of exposure to carcinogens and the harmonized use of effect biomarkers, would help the European policy on occupational risks, especially for the evaluation of the risk of chemical mixtures, so important in the occupational cancer field.
About the research group
The Basic and Clinical Oncology research group at ibs.GRANADA, led by Nicolás Olea, is a multidisciplinary team made up of clinical doctors, physiotherapists, biologists, chemists and environmentalists who join forces in the study of the environmental causes of common diseases and in the diagnosis and treatment of tumor diseases. Participation in the CIBER of Epidemiology and Public Health, (Area of Labor and Environmental Epidemiology), the Childhood and Environment Network (INMA), the European Network for Biomonitoring of Environmental Exposure (HBM4EU and PARC), the Biobank Platform and the collaboration in the MCC-Spain and EPIC-Spain studies, provide guidance on the group's objectives in the field of environmental epidemiology.
The lines of research in which they work are radiological diagnosis, environmental epidemiology, risk factors in chronic diseases, personalized medicine, tumor radiobiology and oncological treatments.
