Professional exposure to goats increases the risk of pneumonic-type lung adenocarcinoma: results of the IFCT-0504-Epidemio study.

• Main Authors: Delphine Lutringer-Magnin, Nicolas Girard, Jacques Cadranel, Caroline Leroux, Elisabeth Quoix, Vincent Cottin, Corinne Del Signore, Marie-Paule Lebitasy, Geneviève Cordier, Philippe Vanhems, Jean-François Mornex
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2012-01-01
• Series: PLoS ONE
• Online Access: http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3360000?pdf=render

Pneumonic-type lung adenocarcinoma (P-ADC) represents a distinct subset of lung cancer with specific clinical, radiological, and pathological features. Given the weak association with tobacco-smoking and the striking similarities with jaagsiekte sheep retrovirus (JSRV)-induced ovine pulmonary adenocarcinoma, it has been suggested that a zoonotic viral agent infecting pulmonary cells may predispose to P-ADC in humans. Our objective was to explore whether exposure to domestic small ruminants may represent a risk factor for P-ADC. We performed a multicenter case-control study recruiting patients with P-ADC as cases and patients with non-P-ADC non-small cell lung cancer as controls. A dedicated 356-item questionnaire was built to evaluate exposure to livestock. A total of 44 cases and 132 controls were included. At multivariate analysis, P-ADC was significantly more associated with female gender (Odds-ratio (OR) = 3.23, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.32-7.87, p = 0.010), never-smoker status (OR = 3.57, 95% CI: 1.27-10.00, p = 0.015), personal history of extra-thoracic cancer before P-ADC diagnosis (OR = 3.43, 95% CI: 1.10-10.72, p = 0.034), and professional exposure to goats (OR = 5.09, 95% CI: 1.05-24.69, p = 0.043), as compared to other subtypes of lung cancer. This case-control suggests a link between professional exposure to goats and P-ADC, and prompts for further epidemiological evaluation of potential environmental risk factors for P-ADC.