Breast cancer is the second most common type of cancer in women, according to the Mayo Clinic, and while survival rates have improved with the advent of new treatment options, much work is needed to fully understand what predisposes some
individuals to this type of cancer. The link between air pollution and poor health has become better understood in recent years, with a strong link between air pollution and stroke, ischemic heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,
lung cancer, pneumonia, and cataract shown in scientific literature. The connection between air pollution and breast cancer, however, is still being explored. A recent study from Praud and colleagues published in the British Journal of Cancer investigated whether there was evidence of an association between higher air pollution exposure and breast cancer.
Praud and colleagues looked at long-term exposure to air pollution in over 5,000 women who had breast cancer between 1990 and 2011. This study utilised a case-control design to compare women with breast cancer to matched controls without
breast cancer and found that women with higher exposure to air pollution were more likely to have breast cancer. Specifically, exposure to air pollution was associated with invasive lobular and ductal breast cancer. Exposure to air pollution at the size of 2.5μm was associated with 2.74 (95% confidence interval 1.05–7.15) times higher odds of invasive lobular and ductal breast cancers. Larger particulate air pollution exposure, at the size of 10μm, was associated with 2.05 (95% confidence interval 1.11–3.78) times higher odds of invasive lobular and ductal breast cancers. Overall, the study highlighted the need for more in-depth studies of this association, especially those utilising highly sensitive measures for air pollution at key developmental phases in a participant’s life.
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GlobalData also monitors breast cancer incidence, with current forecasts showing a slight increase in new cases of breast cancer across the 16 major markets (16MM: US, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, UK, Japan, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, India, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, and South Korea) from 1.4 million new cases in 2025 to almost 1.7 million new cases in In countries with a high amount of air pollution, GlobalData epidemiologists also forecast this increase. In India, for example, incident cases are projected to increase from approximately 200,000 incident cases in 2025 to over 245,000 incident cases in 2034.
This study elucidates a possible path forward to prevent new cancers, as well as better target early detection surveillance work. If this association is supported by further longitudinal and high-detail studies, areas with higher air pollution will receive special attention. Efforts to mitigate air pollution to prevent further harm will need to be combined with investment in early detection for breast cancer. More study is needed to confirm this association, but efforts to improve air quality may result in the prevention of future cancer cases, even inadvertently.
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