Abstract B100: Association between ambient ultraviolet radiation and risk of esophageal cancer

Background and Aims: Ecological studies have suggested an inverse relationship between latitude and risks of some cancers. However, associations between solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR) exposure and esophageal cancer risk have not been fully explored. We therefore investigated the association between nevi, freckles and measures of ambient UVR over the life-course with risks of esophageal cancers. Methods: We compared estimated lifetime residential ambient UVR among Australian patients with esophageal cancer (330 esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC), 386 esophago-gastric junction adenocarcinoma (EGJAC), and 279 esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC)), and 1471 population controls. We asked people where they had lived at different periods of their life, and assigned ambient UVR to each location based on measurements from NASA's Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer database. Freckling and nevus burden were self-reported. We used multivariable logistic regression models to estimate the magnitude of associations between phenotype, ambient UVR and esophageal cancer risk. Results: Compared with population controls, patients with EAC and EGJAC were less likely to have high levels of estimated cumulative lifetime ambient UVR (EAC OR 0.59, 95% CI 0.35 – 0.99, EGJAC OR 0.55, 0.34 – 0.90). We found no association between UVR and risk of ESCC (OR 0.91, 0.51 – 1.64). The associations were independent of age, sex, BMI, education, state of recruitment, frequency of reflux, smoking status, alcohol consumption, and H.pylori serostatus. Cases with EAC were also significantly less likely to report high levels of nevi than controls. Conclusion: These data show an inverse association between ambient solar UVR at residential locations and risk of EAC and EGJAC, but not ESCC. Citation Format: Bich Tran, Robyn Lucas, Michael Kimlin, David Whiteman, Neale Rachel. Association between ambient ultraviolet radiation and risk of esophageal cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Eleventh Annual AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research; 2012 Oct 16-19; Anaheim, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Prev Res 2012;5(11 Suppl):Abstract nr B100.