Cumulative Erythemal Ultraviolet Radiation and Risk of Cancer in 3 Large US Prospective Cohorts.

Abstract

Ultraviolet radiation (UVR) exposure is the major risk factor for melanoma. However, epidemiologic studies on UVR and noncutaneous cancers have reported inconsistent results, with some suggesting an inverse relationship potentially mediated by vitamin D. To address this, we examined 3 US prospective cohorts, the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (HPFS) (1986) and Nurses' Health Study (NHS) I and II (1976 and 1989), for associations between cumulative erythemal UVR and incident cancer risk, excluding nonmelanoma skin cancer. We used a validated spatiotemporal model to calculate erythemal UVR. Participants (47,714 men; 212,449 women) were stratified into quintiles by cumulative average erythemal UVR, using the first quintile as referent, for Cox proportional hazards regression analysis. In the multivariable-adjusted meta-analysis of all cohorts, compared with the lowest quintile, risk of any cancer was slightly increased across all other quintiles (highest quintile hazard ratio (HR) = 1.04, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.01, 1.07; P for heterogeneity = 0.41). All UVR quintiles were associated with similarly increased risk of any cancer excluding melanoma. As expected, erythemal UVR was positively associated with risk of melanoma (highest quintile HR = 1.17, 95% CI: 1.04, 1.31; P for heterogeneity = 0.83). These findings suggest that elevated UVR is associated with increased risk of both melanoma and noncutaneous cancers.

• Authors: Michael S Chang, Rebecca I Hartman, Nicole Trepanowski, Edward L Giovannucci, Hongmei Nan, Xin Li
• Journal: American journal of epidemiology (Am J Epidemiol) Vol. 191 Issue 10 Pg. 1742-1752 (09 28 2022) ISSN: 1476-6256 [Electronic] United States
• PMID: 35671977 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Meta-Analysis, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't, Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S., Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural)
• Copyright: © The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: [email protected].

Chemical References

• Vitamin D

Topics

• Female
• Follow-Up Studies
• Humans
• Male
• Melanoma (epidemiology, etiology)
• Prospective Studies
• Risk Factors
• Skin Neoplasms (epidemiology, etiology)
• Ultraviolet Rays (adverse effects)
• Vitamin D