Long-term air pollution exposure and malignant intracranial tumours of the central nervous system: a pooled analysis of six European cohorts

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

  • Ulla Arthur Hvidtfeldt
  • Jie Chen
  • Sophia Rodopoulou
  • Maciej Strak
  • Kees de Hoogh
  • Tom Bellander
  • Jørgen Brandt
  • Daniela Fecht
  • Francesco Forastiere
  • John Gulliver
  • Ole Hertel
  • Barbara Hoffmann
  • Klea Katsouyanni
  • Matthias Ketzel
  • Karin Leander
  • Patrik K.E. Magnusson
  • Gabriele Nagel
  • Göran Pershagen
  • Debora Rizzuto
  • Evangelia Samoli
  • Massimo Stafoggia
  • Gudrun Weinmayr
  • Kathrin Wolf
  • Emanuel Zitt
  • Bert Brunekreef
  • Gerard Hoek
  • Ole Raaschou-Nielsen

Background: Risk factors for malignant tumours of the central nervous system (CNS) are largely unknown. Methods: We pooled six European cohorts (N = 302,493) and assessed the association between residential exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO2), fine particles (PM2.5), black carbon (BC), ozone (O3) and eight elemental components of PM2.5 (copper, iron, potassium, nickel, sulfur, silicon, vanadium, and zinc) and malignant intracranial CNS tumours defined according to the International Classification of Diseases ICD-9/ICD-10 codes 192.1/C70.0, 191.0–191.9/C71.0–C71.9, 192.0/C72.2–C72.5. We applied Cox proportional hazards models adjusting for potential confounders at the individual and area-level. Results: During 5,497,514 person-years of follow-up (average 18.2 years), we observed 623 malignant CNS tumours. The results of the fully adjusted linear analyses showed a hazard ratio (95% confidence interval) of 1.07 (0.95, 1.21) per 10 μg/m³ NO2, 1.17 (0.96, 1.41) per 5 μg/m³ PM2.5, 1.10 (0.97, 1.25) per 0.5 10−5m−1 BC, and 0.99 (0.84, 1.17) per 10 μg/m³ O3. Conclusions: We observed indications of an association between exposure to NO2, PM2.5, and BC and tumours of the CNS. The PM elements were not consistently associated with CNS tumour incidence.

Original languageEnglish
JournalBritish Journal of Cancer
Volume129
Pages (from-to)656–664
Number of pages9
ISSN0007-0920
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.

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