A new study led by Spanish researchers has revealed that exposure to certain substances may increase the risk of cancer of the oesophagus.
The hotel and restaurant trades, animal handling, mining and carpentry are some of the professions posing the highest risk.
Jesús Vioque, a researcher at the Miguel Hernández University in Alicante, is leading a cases and controls study looking into the relationship between occupations and three types of cancer - oesophageal, pancreatic and stomach. The article showing the link between certain professions and the risk of suffering cancer of the oesophagus is the first to have been published.
The study, which appears in the latest edition of the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine, analyses the two principle types of cancer of the oesophagus, which account for more than 90% of all cases - squamous cell cancer (70-75%) and adenocarcinoma (15-20%).
"The two major risk factors for this cancer are alcohol and tobacco, but there is an additional number (around 4%-5%) of cases associated with certain occupations," Vioque tells SINC.
The research study, which was carried out in nine hospitals in Valencia and Alicante, involved analysing the cases of 185 men with recently-diagnosed cancer of the oesophagus (147 squamous cell cancer, 38 adenocarcinoma) and 285 healthy controls. All those who took part in the study filled in a questionnaire about their diet, profession and lifestyle. The results were adjusted to take into account factors such as age, educational level and alcohol and tobacco consumption.
For the squamous cell variety, a significant increase in risk was detected among those who worked in the hotel and restaurant trade, mining (stone cutters) and wood-working workshops. With the adenocarcinoma type, the risk rose among those working as carpenters or animal handlers. An increase was also detected among workers involved in construction and electricity, "although these were based upon a very small number of cases".