The Development of a WTC Environmental Health Center Pan-Cancer Database.

Yongzhao Shao,Nedim Durmus,Joan Reibman,Rachel Corona,Maria-Elena Fernandez-Beros,Lisette Umana,Sheila Smyth-Giambanco,Sultan Pehlivan,Sharon A Abbott,Adrienne Addessi,Yian Zhang,Alan A Arslan

doi:10.3390/ijerph18041646

Abstract

(1) Background: Recent studies have reported elevated risks of multiple cancers in the World Trade Center (WTC) affected community members (also called WTC “Survivors”). The large variety of WTC-cancers created a need to develop a comprehensive cancer database. This paper describes the development of a pan-cancer database at the WTC Environmental Health Center (EHC) Data Center. (2) Methods: A new REDCap-based pan-cancer database was created using the pathology reports and available biomarker data of confirmed cancer cases after review by a cancer epidemiologist, a pathologist, physicians and biostatisticians. (3) Results: The WTC EHC pan-cancer database contains cancer characteristics and emerging biomarker information for cancers of individuals enrolled in the WTC EHC and diagnosed after 11 September 2001 and up to 31 December 2019 obtained from WTC EHC clinical records, pathological reports and state cancer registries. As of 31 December 2019, the database included 3440 cancer cases with cancer characteristics and biomarker information. (4) Conclusions: This evolving database represents an important resource for the scientific community facilitating future research about the etiology, heterogeneity, characteristics and outcomes of cancers and comorbid mental health conditions, cancer economics and gene–environment interaction in the unique population of WTC survivors.

Highlights

We previously showed that World Trade Center (WTC) acute and chronic exposures are significantly associated with lower respiratory symptoms (LRS), lung function abnormalities and neuropathic symptoms [14,15,16,17,18]
We present information about the structure of the database as well as summary data to illustrate the properties of the WTC Environmental Health Center (EHC) pan-cancer database
We report on the development and structure of the WTC Environmental Health Center (WTC EHC) pan-cancer database for the cancers identified in the WTC EHC

Summary

Introduction

The destruction of the World Trade Center (WTC) towers on 11 September 2001, released a vast amount of pulverized material into the surrounding environment [1,2,3]. The dust settled on the streets and buildings in the local community of the WTC site and breached the indoor areas, necessitating a massive and prolonged clean-up. Fires from the combustion of the collapsed towers continued through December 2001. Community members, including those who lived, worked, attended schools or were involved in cleaning many of the surrounding areas affected by the WTC exposure, called

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Conclusion