Abstract
Background: Radioactive contamination and chemical pollution of the environment can affect the processes of carcinogenesis, including the formation of malignant neoplasms of the ovaries in women. We used the data of official state statistics for 2000–2020 to test the hypothesis about the effect of radioactive contamination (following the Chernobyl disaster) and chemical pollutants on the incidence of ovarian malignancies in the female population of the Bryansk region. Methods: A variety of statistical approaches were used to estimate the incidence of ovarian malignancies, including the Shapiro–Wilk test, Mann–Whitney U test, Spearman’s rank correlation test and linear regression. Results: We did not establish statistically significant differences in the frequency of primary morbidity of women with malignant neoplasms of the ovaries, regardless of the environmental conditions of living. Furthermore, no significant correlations were found between the frequency of primary morbidity of ovarian malignancies, both with the level of contamination by Cesium-137 and Strontium-90, and air pollution with volatile organic compounds, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides. A statistically significant increase in the long-term trend in the frequency of ovarian malignant neoplasms was revealed in the areas of chemical pollution (p = 0.02), however, in other territories, no statistically significant regularities were established. The forecast of the frequency of newly diagnosed malignant neoplasms of the ovaries on average in the Bryansk region shows an increase of 12.4% in 2020 in comparison with the real data for 2020, while the largest increase in predicted values is recorded in the territories of radioactive contamination (by 79.6%), and the least in the combined territories (by 6.9%). Conclusions: The results obtained indicate the need for further work to understand the trends in the presence/absence of independent and combined effects of pollutants and the growth of oncogynecological pathology from the perspective of assessing the distant and regional metastasis, histological and immunohistochemical profile of a specific malignant ovarian neoplasm with levels of environmental contamination.
Highlights
According to the latest estimates of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) at the World Health Organization (WHO) GLOBOCAN 2020 [1], the incidence of malignant neoplasms in the world has increased to 19.3 million new cases and 10.0 million deaths from them in 2020
The density of radioactive contamination of the territories by 137Cs and 90Sr due to the Chernobyl accident was estimated according to the data [28], and chemical pollution was acquired from reports on emissions of chemicals into the atmosphere from stationary sources [35]
Some have suggested that the upward trend in the incidence of malignant neoplasms in the world may reflect some general trends in the increase in the genetic load in human populations, due to the growth of chemical pollution and radiation contamination of the biosphere by “eternal” and “global” pollutants [34]
Summary
According to the latest estimates of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) at the World Health Organization (WHO) GLOBOCAN 2020 [1], the incidence of malignant neoplasms in the world has increased to 19.3 million new cases and 10.0 million deaths from them in 2020. It should be noted that the distribution of patients with ovarian cancer by stages significantly differs from their distribution in cancer of the cervix and uterine body, being characterized by half the proportion of I–II stages among patients with a newly established diagnosis, and a predominance of III–IV stages of the disease. This certainly worsens the prognosis of effective treatment and the quality of life of patients [3]. Conclusions: The results obtained indicate the need for further work to understand the trends in the presence/absence of independent and combined effects of pollutants and the growth of oncogynecological pathology from the perspective of assessing the distant and regional metastasis, histological and immunohistochemical profile of a specific malignant ovarian neoplasm with levels of environmental contamination
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