Air pollution and lung cancer incidence; 17 European cohort studies within the ESCAPE project

摘要

Background: Ambient air pollution, and in particular particulate matter (PM), is suspected to cause lung cancer. Aims: To estimate associations between long-term exposure to air pollution at the residence and lung cancer incidence in European populations. Methods: We used individual data from 17 European cohorts. Baseline addresses were geocoded and air pollution was assessed by land-use regression models for PM below 10 μm (PM10), below 2.5 μm (PM2.5), between 2.5 and 10 μm (PMcoarse), PM2.5absorbance, nitrogen oxides and two traffic indicators. We used Cox regression models with adjustment for potential confounders for cohort-specific analyses and random effects models for meta-analyses of the cohort-specific results. Results: We included 312,944 cohort members contributing 4,013,131 person-years at risk and 2095 incident lung cancer cases developed during the follow-up of on average 12.8 years. The meta-analyses showed that a 10 μg/m3 increase in PM10 was associated with a 22% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 3 to 45%) increase in risk for lung cancer, a 5 μg/m3 increase in PM2.5 was associated with an 18% (95% CI: -4 to 46%) increase in risk. Similar increments of PM10 and PM2.5, respectively, were associated with 49% (95% CI: 8 to 105%) and 55% (95% CI: 5 to 129%) increase in risk for adenocarcinomas of the lung. An increase in road traffic of 4000 vehicle-km/day within 100 m of the residence was associated with a 9% (95% CI: -1 to 21%) increase in risk for lung cancer. Associations between PM air pollution and lung cancer were also detected among never smokers. The results showed no association for nitrogen oxides or traffic on nearest street. Conclusions: This study showed associations between particulate matter air pollution and lung cancer incidence in Europe.