Farming, Pesticides, and Brain Cancer: A 20-Year Updated Systematic Literature Review and Meta-Analysis
School of Community and Global Health, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, CA 91711, USA
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Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editor: Gayathri R. Devi
Cancers 2021, 13(17), 4477; https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers13174477
Received: 28 July 2021
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Revised: 30 August 2021
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Accepted: 2 September 2021
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Published: 5 September 2021
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Carcinogens and Cancer Risk)
Simple Summary
A synthesis of 40 years of epidemiologic studies of farming and brain cancer that updates two previous meta-analyses finds that farming with its potential for exposure to chemical pesticides is associated with an increased risk of brain cancer.
Twenty additional years of epidemiologic literature have become available since the publication of two meta-analyses on farming and brain cancer in 1998. The current systematic literature review and meta-analysis extends previous research and harmonizes findings. A random effects model was used to calculate meta-effect estimates from 52 studies (51 articles or reports), including 11 additional studies since 1998. Forty of the 52 studies reported positive associations between farming and brain cancer with effect estimates ranging from 1.03 to 6.53. The overall meta-risk estimate was 1.13 (95% CI = 1.06, 1.21), suggesting that farming is associated with a 13% increase in risk of brain cancer morbidity or mortality. Farming among white populations was associated with a higher risk of brain cancer than among non-white populations. Livestock farming (meta-RR = 1.34; 95% CI = 1.18, 1.53) was associated with a greater risk compared with crop farming (meta-RR = 1.13; 95% CI = 0.97, 1.30). Farmers with documented exposure to pesticides had greater than a 20% elevated risk of brain cancer. Despite heterogeneity among studies, we conclude that the synthesis of evidence from 40 years of epidemiologic literature supports an association between brain cancer and farming with its potential for exposure to chemical pesticides.
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Keywords:
farming; agriculture; pesticides; brain cancer; glioma; meta-analysis; systematic literature review; evidence synthesis
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MDPI and ACS Style
Gatto, N.M.; Ogata, P.; Lytle, B. Farming, Pesticides, and Brain Cancer: A 20-Year Updated Systematic Literature Review and Meta-Analysis. Cancers 2021, 13, 4477. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers13174477
AMA Style
Gatto NM, Ogata P, Lytle B. Farming, Pesticides, and Brain Cancer: A 20-Year Updated Systematic Literature Review and Meta-Analysis. Cancers. 2021; 13(17):4477. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers13174477
Chicago/Turabian StyleGatto, Nicole M., Pamela Ogata, and Brittany Lytle. 2021. "Farming, Pesticides, and Brain Cancer: A 20-Year Updated Systematic Literature Review and Meta-Analysis" Cancers 13, no. 17: 4477. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers13174477
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