“We have observed that there is a relationship between Pcb levels in the blood and the development of liver cancer, even if the evidence is weak due to the small number of cases examined.” It is the first time that an Italian scientific study certifies this link between polychlorinated biphenyls (Pcb), the substances produced by Caffaro until the 1980s, and liver cancer. It was put on paper in a long study, recently completed, carried out by the University of Brescia and published in the journal Scientific Reports. “In the 62 patients examined up to the end – explains Professor Francesco Donato, principal author of the study and professor of Epidemiology at the University of Brescia -, we observed blood levels of Pcb higher than those of representative subjects of the entire population”. Although 70% of patients also had other risk factors, such as excessive alcohol consumption, “we have seen an association between the level of PCBs in the blood and liver cancer independent of other risk factors”.
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The same International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in 2013 classified PCBs as certain carcinogens for humans. And also from the USA feedback had arrived: Philippe Grandjean (Harvard), who had studied the case of Anniston, in an interview with Rai3 said that these chemicals caused cancer, but could also play a role in the development of diabetes and in the reduction of children’s cognitive abilities. There is now a direct, albeit weak, correlation to liver cancer. And this could help explain why there is a higher incidence of liver cancer (+ 39%) in the Brescia area than in north-western Italy. On the subject, Professor Donato recalls that as early as the 1990s the province of Brescia had the highest mortality levels in Italy from liver cancer. However, it was discovered that, in 90% of cases, the cause was linked to what “still today are the three most common risk factors for this carcinoma: infection due to the hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C and the ‘high alcohol consumption’. Thanks to vaccines, the number of viral hepatitis has decreased. Even the PCB in the blood of Brescia has decreased, thanks to the interruption of the food chain. But many had eaten PCB-contaminated meat and eggs for years. And given that liver cancer can emerge even after 30 years of exposure, the study focused on the elderly. There were already experimental studies on animals that found a link between Pcb and liver cancer, “but not infrequently what is toxic to humans is not toxic to animals and vice versa” Donato recalls. “In a previous study, we did a series of measurements on biological material and saw that there was a correspondence between the levels of these compounds in the blood and storage tissues. This – he continues – prompted us to carry out the study now published, which showed higher levels of Pcb in subjects with liver cancer than in subjects of the same age and gender but without liver disease ». The correlation therefore exists.
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February 14, 2021 | 11:06
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