Table 3.

Impacts of microplastics on cancer development and associated molecular mechanisms.

Biological effect/cancer type	Mechanism
• Chronic inflammation and irritation • Deoxyribonucleic acid damages	• Pro-inflammatory mediators • Progression of malignancies
• Lead to cancer hallmarks such as CD44, N-cadherin, programmed death ligand 1, and proliferation • Decreased survival rate • Increased the growth of tumours	• Enhanced the expression level of asialoglycoprotein receptors (ASGR2)
• Increased cellular oxidative stress	• The toxicological reaction of cancer-coli 2 (Caco-2) cells
• Inflammation and colon cell permeability are affected • Breast, colon, and liver cancers	• Elevated levels of interleukin-17 and immunoglobulin A • Induced resistance to conventional chemotherapeutic agents
• Cause liver and reproductive toxicity • Growth impairments • Breast cancer	• Overexpressing angiogenesis and nutritional supply • As oestrogen receptor α, the endocrine system mediates human embryonic kidney-oestrogen receptors (HEK-ESR) and human breast cancer cell line (MCF-7) breast cancer cells
• Breast cancer	• High protein expression of pituitary tumour-transforming gene 1 (PTTG1) • Increased MCF-7 cell proliferation by suppressing the expression of microRNA (miR-381-3p)
• Breast cancer • Prostate cancer • Secondary mutagenesis •Tumour development	• Breaking the deoxyribonucleic acid by double strands causes instability of genomic and chromosome rearrangements

Various cancer types can be developed due to microplastic exposure, which induces several inflammatory responses and deoxyribonucleic acid damage.

MCF-7 and RNA refer to the human breast cancer cell line and ribonucleic acid, respectively