Table 3.
Comparison of human and animal evidence for agents identified as plausibly linked to breast cancer in major reviews.a
| Agent | Human breast | Rodent mammary | Reference (human) | Reference (rodent) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Estrogenic pharmaceuticals | ||||
| HRT (estrogen–progestin) | Positive | Positive | Cogliano et al. 2011 | Rudel et al. 2007 |
| HRT (estrogen only) | Limited positiveb | Positive | Cogliano et al. 2011 | Rudel et al. 2007 |
| Estrogen–progestin contraceptives | Positive | Positive | Cogliano et al. 2011 | Rudel et al. 2007 |
| DES (mother and daughter) | Positive | Positive | Cogliano et al. 2011; Hoover et al. 2011 | Rudel et al. 2007 |
| Other pharmaceuticals | ||||
| Griseofulvin, furosamide, metronidazole | Limited positiveb | Positive | Friedman et al. 2009 | Rudel et al. 2007 |
| Indomethacin, nitrofurantoin | Limited null findingc | Positive | Friedman et al. 2009 | Rudel et al. 2007 |
| Miscellaneous | ||||
| Ionizing radiation | Positive | Positive | Cogliano et al. 2011 | Rudel et al. 2007 |
| Ethanol/drinking alcoholic beverages | Positive | Limited positiveb | Cogliano et al. 2011 | Oyesanmi et al. 2010 |
| Heterocyclic amines in grilled/fried meat | Limited positiveb | Positive | Michels et al. 2007 | Rudel et al. 2007 |
| Light at night/shift work/circadian | Limited positiveb | Positive | Cogliano et al. 2011 | Stevens 2009 |
| EtO | Limited positiveb | Positive | Cogliano et al. 2011 | Rudel et al. 2007 |
| PAHs (auto exhaust, cigarette smoke) | Limited positiveb | Positive | Cogliano et al. 2011 | Rudel et al. 2007 |
| Common industrial solvents | Limited positiveb | Positive | Brody et al. 2007a | Rudel et al. 2007 |
| Persistent organochlorines | ||||
| DDE [(DDT metabolite) in older adult blood) | Null | Null | Brody et al. 2007a; Snedeker 2001 | NTP 1978 |
| DDT (in blood at young age) | Limited positiveb | No study | Brody et al. 2007a;.Cohn et al. 2007 | — |
| PCBs (in older adult blood) | Null | Null | Brody et al. 2007a | NTP 2011 |
| PCBs (in subpopulations with polymorphism) | Limited positiveb | No relevant model | Brody et al. 2007a | — |
| TCDD/dioxin (in early life) | Limited positiveb | Positive (with carcinogen challenge) | Brody et al. 2007a; Warner et al. 2011 | Brown et al. 1998 |
| Abbreviations: DDE, dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene; TCDD, 2,3,7,8 tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin. aAgents with strongest human breast cancer evidence from reviews by IARC (2012b), Cogliano et al. (2011), Brody et al. (2007a), Hoover et al. (2011), Michels et al. (2007) and Friedman et al. (2009). Animal study findings from original research papers, NTP reports, and other government reports. bFollowing Cogliano et al. (2011), “limited positive” indicates evidence sufficient to establish a credible causal relationship but not sufficient to rule out chance, bias, or confounding. cA single study (Friedman et al. 2009) found no association between these two pharmaceuticals and breast cancer. | ||||