Breast Cancer Characteristics in the Population of Survivors Participating in the World Trade Center Environmental Health Center Program 2002–2019

Alan A. Arslan, Yian Zhang, Nedim Durmus, Sultan Pehlivan, Adrienne Addessi, Freya Schnabel, Yongzhao Shao and Joan Reibman
Additional contact information
Alan A. Arslan: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, New York University Langone Health, New York, NY 10016, USA
Yian Zhang: Department of Population Health, New York University Langone Health, New York, NY 10016, USA
Nedim Durmus: Department of Medicine, New York University Langone Health, New York, NY 10016, USA
Sultan Pehlivan: Department of Medicine, New York University Langone Health, New York, NY 10016, USA
Adrienne Addessi: Department of Medicine, New York University Langone Health, New York, NY 10016, USA
Freya Schnabel: NYU Perlmutter Comprehensive Cancer Center, New York University, New York, NY 10016, USA
Yongzhao Shao: Department of Population Health, New York University Langone Health, New York, NY 10016, USA
Joan Reibman: Department of Medicine, New York University Langone Health, New York, NY 10016, USA

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 14, 1-11

Abstract: The destruction of World Trade Center on 11 September 2001 exposed local community members to a complex mixture of known carcinogens and potentially carcinogenic substances. To date, breast cancer has not been characterized in detail in the WTC-exposed civilian populations. The cancer characteristics of breast cancer patients were derived from the newly developed Pan-Cancer Database at the WTC Environmental Health Center (WTC EHC). We used the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program breast cancer data as a reference source. Between May 2002 and 31 December 2019, 2840 persons were diagnosed with any type of cancer at the WTC EHC, including 601 patients with a primary breast cancer diagnosis (592 women and 9 men). There was a higher proportion of grade 3 (poorly differentiated) tumors (34%) among the WTC EHC female breast cancers compared to that of the SEER-18 data (25%). Compared to that of the SEER data, female breast cancers in the WTC EHC had a lower proportion of luminal A (88% and 65%, respectively), higher proportion of luminal B (13% and 15%, respectively), and HER-2-enriched (5.5% and 7%, respectively) subtypes. These findings suggest considerable differences in the breast cancer characteristics and distribution of breast cancer intrinsic subtypes in the WTC-exposed civilian population compared to that of the general population. This is important because of the known effect of molecular subtypes on breast cancer prognosis.

Keywords: breast cancer; environmental exposure; exposure assessment; world trade center; 9/11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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