Cancer
Personal Talc Use and Incident Lung Cancer Maya Deshmukh* Katie O’Brien Maya Deshmukh Kaitlyn Lawrence Dale Sandler
Background: Talc is a known risk factor for lung disease due to its small particle size and commonly aerosolized form. Further, talc may contain asbestos, a known lung carcinogen. Studies on talc exposure and lung cancer have largely been conducted among men in occupational settings. Personal use of talc-based powders is common among U.S. women. The association of talc in personal care products with lung cancer is not well studied.
Methods: We studied the association of self-reported talc use and incident lung or bronchus cancer in the Sister Study. Participants reported talc use in the 12 months prior to enrollment, including frequency of use on the underarms, genitals, or other sites. Measures of lifetime talc use also incorporated data on use at ages 10-13 and ever genital talc use. We used Cox proportional hazards models to estimate covariate-adjusted hazards ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the associations between talc use and incident lung cancer.
Results: Among 49,499 eligible women, 571 lung cancer cases were identified. The average enrollment age was 56 years, with a median follow-up of 12.5 years. Overall, 41% of women reported using talc on any site in the last 12 months, with an HR for ever versus never use of 0.90 (CI: 0.76-1.07). HRs were similar across application sites, with no evidence of dose-response trends (Figure). Frequent use of underarm talc was positively associated with adenocarcinoma (HR=1.52, CI: 0.99-2.31). Ever lifetime use at any site was not strongly associated with lung cancer (HR=1.00, CI: 0.84-1.21 overall, HR=1.13, CI: 0.82-1.56 for adenocarcinoma).
Conclusions: Personal talc use was not consistently associated with incident lung cancer. This novel investigation of the association between talc-based body powders and lung cancer incidence in women contributes to a better understanding of the potential health effects of personal care products, which may contain asbestos or other harmful substances.
