Toenail Arsenic Content and Cutaneous Melanoma in Iowa

February 12, 2005

Laura E. Beane Freeman1,2 , Leslie K. Dennis2, Charles F. Lynch2, Peter S.

Thorne3 and Craig L. Just4

1 Division of Cancer Prevention, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD. 2

Department of Epidemiology, College of Public Health, University of Iowa, Iowa

City, IA. 3 Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, College of

Public Health, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA. 4 Department of Civil and

Environmental Engineering, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA.

Cutaneous melanoma has the lowest survival rate of all forms of skin cancer.

There has been little research investigating the link between arsenic and

cutaneous melanoma, although arsenic has been associated with increased risk of

nonmelanoma skin cancer.

The authors performed a case-control study examining the association between

cutaneous melanoma and environmental arsenic exposure among Iowans aged 40 years

or older.

Participants included 368 cutaneous melanoma cases and 373 colorectal cancer

controls diagnosed in 1999 or 2000, frequency matched on gender and age.

Participants completed a mailed survey and submitted toenail clippings for

analysis of arsenic content by graphite furnace atomic absorption

spectrophotometry.

The authors found an increased risk of melanoma for participants with elevated

toenail arsenic concentrations (odds ratio = 2.1, 95 percent confidence

interval: 1.4, 3.3; p-trend = 0.001) and effect modification by prior skin

cancer diagnosis (p-interaction = 0.03).

The arsenic-melanoma findings in this study are not known to have been

previously reported in observational epidemiologic studies involving incident

cutaneous melanoma. Therefore, the findings warrant confirmation.

American Journal of Epidemiology 2004 160(7):679-687;

doi:10.1093/aje/kwh267

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