The Interaction between Pesticide Use and Genetic Variants Involved in Lipid Metabolism on Prostate Cancer Risk

Background. Lipid metabolism processes have been implicated in prostate carcinogenesis. Since several pesticides are lipophilic or are metabolized via lipid-related mechanisms, they may interact with variants of genes in the lipid metabolism pathway. Methods. In a nested case-control study of 776 cases and 1444 controls from the Agricultural Health Study (AHS), a prospective cohort study of pesticide applicators, we examined the interactions between 39 pesticides (none, low, and high exposure) and 220 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 59 genes. The false discovery rate (FDR) was used to account for multiple comparisons. Results. We found 17 interactions that displayed a significant monotonic increase in prostate cancer risk with pesticide exposure in one genotype and no significant association in the other genotype. The most noteworthy association was for ALOXE3 rs3027208 and terbufos, such that men carrying the T allele who were low users had an OR of 1.86 (95% CI = 1.16–2.99) and high users an OR of 2.00 (95% CI = 1.28–3.15) compared to those with no use of terbufos, while men carrying the CC genotype did not exhibit a significant association. Conclusion. Genetic variation in lipid metabolism genes may modify pesticide associations with prostate cancer; however our results require replication.