Approved research

Air pollution, lifestyle, genetic susceptibility, in relation to the risk and mortality of urologic cancers

Lay summary

Along with the aging population and socioeconomic development of the past few decades, the incidence and mortality rates of urologic cancer are increasing at an alarming rate around the world. Urologic cancers, which mainly include prostate, bladder, and kidney cancer, contribute to ~13% of total new cancer diagnoses globally. The differences in urologic cancer outcomes between industrialized and developing nations continue to grow. As one of the most significant urologic diseases, kidney cancer is predicted to cost $1.6 billion (2006USD) and cause over 131,000 deaths worldwide. However, the etiology of urologic malignancies and the complicated impact of environmental exposures remains poorly understood.

Previous studies have suggested relationships between air pollution or dietary factors and certain urologic cancers. Currently, only a few of these factors, such as a specific pollutant or dietary behavior, have been found to be associated with the risk of certain urologic cancers, and the corresponding interventions have been adopted individually. However, the results are inconsistent, and their paired and complex interactions are largely unknown. Consequently, we intend to utilize the urologic cancer-related data, air pollution data, and lifestyle data from the UK biobank to investigate the major risk factors. The specific objectives are as follows:1) investigate the association of (a) individual air pollutants and the complex air pollution mixtures; (b) diet and nutrition and the mixtures of those consumptions; (c) biochemistry markers, telomere length, and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scan body composition measurement, with the incidence and mortality of urologic cancers, including prostate, kidney, and bladder cancers; 2) evaluate the interactions between air pollutants and diet/nutrition in relation to the incidence and mortality of urologic cancers. We also would like to extend our scope to explore Aim 1a/1b stratified by status of genetic susceptibility, lifestyle factors, and specific health status (e.g., hypertension and diabetes) and medication usage, as well as to compare the hospitalization admission and primary health care utilization rates in patients with different tumor stages of urologic cancers before, during, and after COVID-19 lockdown.

The findings will eventually lead to the enhancement of screening, prevention, and early intervention in urologic cancer patients. We expect to finish this study and send publications to international peer-review journals for review within 36 months of receiving the data, at which point we will initiate analyses. We expect this study to offer a profile of environmental, dietary, and mixture exposures and urologic cancer risk.