Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 16, 2026

Vinyl Chloride and High-Fat Diet as a Model of Environment and Obesity Interaction
Published on: January 12, 2020
Risk of selected cancers due to occupational exposure to chlorinated solvents in a case-control study in Montreal
Krista Yorita Christensen1, David Vizcaya, Harriet Richardson
1University of Montreal Hospital Research Center, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Objective:
To evaluate the association between exposure to chlorinated solvents and cancer.
Methods:
We conducted a case-control study of occupational exposures and cancer in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, including 3730 cancer cases and 533 population controls. Occupational exposures were derived using a combination of subject-reported job history and expert assessment. We examined the associations between two chemical families and six chlorinated solvents with 11 sites of cancer.
Results:
The majority of the associations examined were null, although many were based on small numbers. We found two significantly elevated odds ratios (ORs), one between perchloroethylene and prostate cancer (OR = 4.3; 95% CI: 1.4 to 13) and another between trichloroethylene and melanoma (OR = 3.2; 95% CI: 1.0 to 9.9).
Conclusions:
There was little evidence of associations between chlorinated solvents and cancer. Limited power precludes strong inferences about absence of risk. We raise hypotheses about two possible associations: perchloroethylene with prostate cancer and trichloroethylene with melanoma.
Related Concept Videos
Types of Toxins
Air pollutants, primarily gases, pose significant threats to respiratory health, leading to conditions like hypoxia, lung cancer, and in extreme cases, death.
Environmental pollutants like...
Cancer Prevention
Some...
Mutagenicity and Carcinogenicity
Relative Risk
Types of Biopharmaceutical Studies: Controlled and Non-Controlled Approaches
Non-controlled studies, commonly employed for initial exploration, lack a control group, rendering them susceptible to biases and external influences. In contrast, controlled...
Hazard Ratio
For example, in a clinical trial evaluating a...
