Related Experiment Video For case-control studies
Updated: Dec 29, 2025
Detecting Anastasis In Vivo by CaspaseTracker Biosensor
Published on: February 1, 2018
Case-control study of brain and other central nervous system cancer among workers at semiconductor and storage device
Ema G Rodrigues1, Robert F Herrick1, James Stewart1
1Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Objective:
This study evaluated the relationship between brain and other central nervous system cancer ('CNS cancer') and exposures at two semiconductor and electronic module manufacturing facilities and at a storage device manufacturing facility.
Methods:
The case-control study, nested in a cohort of 126 836 employees, compared 120 CNS cancer cases and 1028 matched controls with respect to employment in 10 process groups and estimated cumulative exposure to 31 known or possible carcinogens.
Results:
CNS cancer was associated with module manufacturing operations at two facilities. Module manufacturing is a process that begins with production of ceramic substrates followed by attachment of completed semiconductor chips and metal-containing circuitry resulting in a high performing electronic device. Positive associations with the highest tertile of estimated cumulative exposure were found for several chemicals, including 2-butoxyethanol, cyclohexanone, ortho-dichlorobenzene, cadmium, molybdenum, trichloroethylene and vinyl chloride.
Conclusions:
Results suggested positive associations between CNS cancer and specific operations and chemicals experienced in the semiconductor and electronic module manufacturing industry. However, lack of external support for these findings precludes a causal interpretation, and the observed associations may have been due to chance.
