Arsenic metabolism and cancer risk. A meta-analysis

摘要

Epidemiologic evidence is inconsistent regarding the association between cancer and arsenic (As) metabolism pattern, measured though its urinary metabolites. We performed a meta-analysis of 13 articles published up to August 2015. Summary risk estimates were obtained with the DerSimonian and Laird method for random effects model. The Q-statistic was used to identify heterogeneity in the outcome variable across studies. The potential for publication bias was evaluated through the Begg's test. We estimated a significant summary measure for cancer in relation to Monomethyl Arsenic Acid (MMA), 2.04 (95%CI: 1.70,2.45) and Dimethyl Arsenic Acid (DMA) percentage, 0.55 (95%CI: 0.37,0.82), We found no evidence of significant heterogeneity in the summary association measure for %MMA but the test was significative for %DMA. No evidence of publication bias was observed (p = 0.961). Overall, these results should be regarded as a strong evidence for the relationship between As metabolism pattern and cancer.