{"id":2207,"date":"2025-01-31T22:42:29","date_gmt":"2025-01-31T22:42:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thewisdomstudy.org\/?page_id=2207"},"modified":"2025-04-09T21:54:20","modified_gmt":"2025-04-09T21:54:20","slug":"environmental-exposures-research","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.thewisdomstudy.org\/environmental-exposures-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Environmental Exposures Research"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Environment
& Breast Cancer <\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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WISDOM's Research on Environmental Exposures & Breast Cancer Risk<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Exposure to environmental pollutants can happen both at work and at home, where many women spend a lot of their time. Studies have shown that where a woman works and lives can affect her risk of getting breast cancer. For example, jobs that involve exposure to carcinogenic chemicals, ionizing radiation, or working night shifts are linked to an increased breast cancer risk. Women who live in highly deprived neighborhoods or areas that were historically redlined are more likely to develop more aggressive breast tumors. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

One major issue is that no models of breast cancer risk consider a woman\u2019s environmental exposures. The challenge is that we can\u2019t easily track a woman\u2019s past exposures. It is also expensive and impractical to test people\u2019s fluids for chemicals over large groups. Instead, researchers are more recently using pollution data from neighborhoods as a substitute for individual exposures. For example, persistent organic pollutants, such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in drinking water and pesticide use in agricultural neighborhoods were associated with blood concentrations of these chemicals among exposed persons. <\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Studies have found a connection between neighborhood-level pollution and breast cancer risk. For example, a recent study <\/u><\/b><\/a><\/span>in New Castle County, Delaware<\/span> found that people exposed to multiple neighborhood-level risk factors, including harmful environmental exposures that particularly affect Black communities, had a higher risk of developing triple-negative breast cancer.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

There are many validated models of breast cancer risk. More recently, a number of these models have been improved by the inclusion of breast density, measured by mammogram. However, there is also an increasing body of evidence from both epidemiologic and both mechanistic and rodent studies to support the critical role of environmental exposures in the development of breast cancer. But currently environmental exposures are not generally considered in breast cancer risk assessments, nor are they incorporated into the common risk models. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Study Overview & Planned Activities<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Researchers from the WISDOM Study received a grant from the US Department of Defense to conduct a sub-study on the relationship between the environment and breast cancer risk. This project seeks to improve breast cancer risk assessment models by including information about a woman\u2019s environmental exposures at home and at work over time. To participate in this sub-study you must be a WISDOM participant.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>