This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY).
ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Comparison of uterine body cancer incidence among women living in environmentally disadvantaged areas (2000−2019)
1 Bryansk State Technical University, Bryansk, Russia
2 Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University, Moscow, Russia
Correspondence should be addressed: Anna E. Kryukova
Boulevard 50 let Oktyabrya, 7, Bryansk, 241035, Russia; ur.kb@annaavokuyrk
Acknowledgement: the authors thank A.I. Maklashova, Chief Medical Officer at the Bryansk Regional Oncological Dispensary, for providing anonymized statistical information on the incidence of endometrial cancer in women in the cities and districts of the Bryansk region for the period from 2000 to 2019.
Author contribution: Kryukova AE ― literature search, statistical processing, authoring, editing, and discussion of the article; Korsakov AV ― analysis of literary data, concept and design of the study, interpretation of the results, approval of the final version of the article; Troshin VP ― data analysis and interpretation, authoring, editing, and discussion of the article; Milushkina OYu ― analysis of literary data, analysis and interpretation of data, editing and discussion of the article; Pivovarov YuP, Korolik VV ― analysis and interpretation of data, editing and discussion of the article.
Compliance with ethical standards: the study used anonymized statistical information on the incidence of UBC in the Bryansk region in 2000–2019.
Living in ecologically compromised regions can significantly increase the risk of malignant neoplasms in the female reproductive system, including uterine body cancer (UBC). This study aimed to calculate the relative risk (RR) and the frequency of primary incidence of UBC among women aged 41–60 years living in areas with different levels of exposure to radiation, chemical, and combined environmental factors. The analysis considered high-, moderate-, and low-grade forms of UBC over a 20-year period (2000–2019). Information for the study was provided by Bryanskstat (Bryansk Region Statistical Bureau), Bryansk Regional Oncological Dispensary, Rospotrebnadzor and Rostechnadzor. We found that the RR of initial occurrence of high-grade forms of UBC in women living in ecologically compromised regions was considerably higher than that in female population of ecologically safe (control) territories, reaching the mean value of 1.28 (95% CI: 1.00–1.64); p = 0.047). Other findings include an increased RR of occurrence of both high- and, to a greater extent, low-grade forms of UBC in areas with high radioactive and chemical contamination — 1.19 (95% CI: 0.87–1.63) and 1.36 (95% CI: 0.70–2.65), respectively; the relative risks for combined and chemical contamination areas were 1.18 (95% CI: 0.90–1.55) and 1.34 (95% CI: 0.75–2.39), respectively; no increase was observed between the territories with combined and radioactive contamination — 0.99 (95% CI: 0.67–1.46) and 0.98 (95% CI: 0.44–2.21). In all likelihood, the data from this study indicate that accident-related radiation contamination plays a more significant role in the development of high-grade — and especially low-grade — forms of UBC than does chemical contamination.
Keywords: Bryansk region, chemical pollution, radioactive contamination, Chernobyl accident, combined contamination, relative risk, malignant neoplasms of the endometrium