Neoplasms

Urinary Tract, Sexual Organs, and Pregnancy Conditions

All Conditions

Blood and Lymph Conditions

Immune System Diseases

Heart and Blood Diseases

Rare Diseases

Prostatic Neoplasms

Lymphoma

Multiple Myeloma

Neoplasms, Plasma Cell

Neoplasms by Histologic Type

Hemostatic Disorders

Blood Coagulation Disorders

Vascular Diseases

Paraproteinemias

Blood Protein Disorders

Hematologic Diseases

Hemorrhagic Disorders

Lymphoproliferative Disorders

Immunoproliferative Disorders

Lymphosarcoma

Laura Beane Freeman, Ph.D.

The "Agricultural Health Study" (AHS) is a collaborative effort between the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health are providing support for a limited exposure assessment effort.

Initial data collection on a prospective cohort of 89,658 study subjects has been completed as of December 1997. Participants completed questionnaires that included items on pesticides used, other agricultural exposures, and work practices that modify exposure as well as on other activities that may affect either exposure or disease risks (e.g., diet, exercise, alcohol consumption, medical conditions, family history of cancer, other occupations and smoking history). Phase II of the study (1998-2003) updated information on occupational exposures, diet, work practices and medical history by means of a computer assisted telephone interview. We also collected buccal cells on sample of 34,000 study participants to assess the effect of inheritable polymorphisms and the interaction of environment and genomic predisposition.

The stimulus for this prospective investigation comes from the growing evidence that, despite a low mortality overall, farmers experience an excess of several cancers. These excesses have been observed in retrospective epidemiological studies among agricultural workers in several countries. Excess cancers are observed for the lymphatic and hematopoietic system, connective tissue, skin, brain, prostate, stomach and lips. Several of these tumors (brain, NHL, multiple myeloma, and prostate) are also increasing in the general population in many of these countries. This suggests a common set of exposures may explain the high rates in farmers and rising rates in the general population.

Farmers, their families, and other pest control workers may have contact with a variety of potentially hazardous substances including pesticides, solvents, fuels and oils, engine exhaust, dust and zoonotic viruses and other microbes. Our cohort study includes all registered pesticide applicators in Iowa and North Carolina and the spouse of applicators who are farmers. The health effects of pesticide use are the primary focus of the study. The influence of other farm exposures are also being evaluated.

The focus of the phase II follow-up period (2004-2008) is to update exposure information and health histories by means of a computer assisted interview and also following the cohort to determine disease incidence and mortality. The cohort is being followed through the cancer registries within Iowa and North Carolina, the Social Security Administration database, state vital statistics offices, National Death Index, and various in-state databases, such as the listing of registered pesticide applicators. Individuals who enrolled into the study but who are no longer at the address given during enrollment (based on subsequent attempts at follow up) have been submitted and will continue to be submitted (through NIOSH) in the standard format to the IRS under their Project 057 Taxpayer Address Request Program. Identifying data provided to the IRS include only SSN and the first four letters of last name of cohort member. IRS provides in return the most current address in IRS records if a match (SSN + all four letter of last name) is found. The purpose of this effort is to identify members of the cohort who have moved out of state, to enable adjustment of person-years for incidence and mortality calculations. Persons who have moved out of state can be followed for vital status and cause of death, but not for cancer incidence.

Continuation of the protocol will provide a valuable epidemiologic resource to help prevent cancers in the future by identifying risk factors in the rural/agricultural environment. Because more cases of important cancer outcomes occur in this cohort every year, potential cancer causes can be evaluated with increased statistical power. Larger number of cases also allows for statistical control of confounding factors, making more meaningful conclusions about cancer risk, and, for some relatively infrequent cancers, such as the lyphomas and leukemias, greater follow-up time is necessary to make any meaningful observations.

...

The "Agricultural Health Study" (AHS) is a collaborative effort between the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health are providing support for a limited exposure assessment effort. Initial data collection on a prospective cohort of 89,655 study subjects has been completed as of December 1997. Participants completed questionnaires that included items on pesticides used, other agricultural exposures, and work practices that modify exposure as well as on other activities that may affect either exposure or disease risks (e.g., diet, exercise, alcohol consumption, medical conditions, family history of cancer, other occupations and smoking history). Phase II of the study (1998-2003) updated information on occupational exposures, diet, work practices and medical history by means of a computer assisted telephone interview. We also collected buccal cells on sample of 34,000 study participants to assess the effect of inheritable polymorphisms and the interaction of environment and genomic predisposition. The stimulus for this prospective investigation comes from the growing evidence that, despite a low mortality overall, farmers experience an excess of several cancers. These excesses have been observed in retrospective epidemiological studies among agricultural workers in several countries. Excess cancers are observed for the lymphatic and hematopoietic system, connective tissue, skin, brain, prostate, stomach and lips. Several of these tumors (brain, NHL, multiple myeloma, and prostate) are also increasing in the general population in many of these countries. This suggests a common set of exposures may explain the high rates in farmers and rising rates in the general population.

Farmers, their families, and other pest control workers may have contact with a variety of potentially hazardous substances including pesticides, solvents, fuels and oils, engine exhaust, dust and zoonotic viruses and other microbes. Our cohort study includes all registered pesticide applicators in Iowa and North Carolina and the spouse of applicators who are farmers. The health effects of pesticide use are the primary focus of the study. The influence of other farm exposures are also being evaluated.

Agriculture Health Study

The Main Agricultural Health Study - A Prospective Study of Cancer and Other Diseases Among Men and Women in Agriculture

Evaluate non-cancer health risks associated with exposure to pesticides and other potential agricultural exposures, e.g., neurotoxicity, reproductive hazards, asthma and other respiratory diseases or symptoms, immunological toxicity, kidney disease, birth outcomes, and growth and development among offspring.

Assess agricultural exposures using periodic interviews and environmental and biological monitoring

Identify and quantify cancer and other disease risks associated with dietary exposures and cooking practices and chemicals resulting from the cooking process.

Evaluate the disease risks among spouses and children of farmers that may arise from indirect contact with agricultural chemicals (e.g., ambient air drifts, pesticide residues on rugs, furniture, and other items, transferring chemicals) and nonoccupational exposures (e.g., applications to pets, in homes, and on gardens).

Identify and quantify cancer risks among men and women, whites, and minorities associated with specific direct pesticide exposures and exposures to other agricultural agents.

Study the relationship between agricultural exposures, the occurrence of biomarkers of exposure, biological effect, and biomarkers of pre-clinical disease and genetic susceptibility factors relevant to carcinogenesis.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

National Cancer Institute (NCI)

Nervous System Diseases

Gland and Hormone Related Diseases

Leukemia

Brain Neoplasms

Testicular Neoplasms

Central Nervous System Neoplasms

Nervous System Neoplasms

Brain Diseases

Central Nervous System Diseases

Endocrine Gland Neoplasms

Genital Neoplasms, Male

Urogenital Neoplasms

Genital Diseases

Genital Diseases, Male

Urogenital Diseases

Male Urogenital Diseases

Endocrine System Diseases

Testicular Diseases

Gonadal Disorders

Laura Beane-Freeman

Background:

The Agricultural Health Study (AHS) studied farmers and their spouses in North Carolina and Iowa. It also included people who worked with pesticides in Iowa. They answered a questionnaire and gave data about their children born since 1975. Researchers want to link this data to public data like birth and death certificates. They want to study how early life exposures to farms are linked to cancer and other bad health outcomes.

Objective:

To study data to find links between early life farm exposure and negative health outcomes.

Eligibility:

There will be no human subjects.

Design:

Researchers will get public data in the two study states. This will come from things like:

Birth certificates

Driver s licenses

Voter registration

Death certificates

Based on these plus the AHS data, they will create a study group. It will be called Early Life Exposure in Agriculture (ELEA).

Researchers will link ELEA data to cancer data. This will identify prevalence of cancer.

They will study parents answers on the AHS. The topics include farm practices and pesticide use. They will determine ELEA exposure to pesticides.

Researchers will analyze the cancer and pesticide results and look for links.

There is increasing evidence that early life exposures may influence future health outcomes although there is a critical need to more fully understand how these may differ from exposures received later in life. The farm environment includes pesticides that have been suggested to increase cancer risk in both children and adults. A review of the literature identified crucial gaps in our knowledge and highlighted the need for accurate exposure assessment, including separate parental interviews, specific pesticide exposure questions, and semiquantitative exposure measures that can be used to confirm information obtained through questionnaires 2. Some studies suggest that the timing of exposure may be particularly important. For example, in a study of the insecticide DDT and breast cancer, researchers observed the highest risks among women exposed prior to age 14 compared to later in life 3. The agricultural environment also includes other exposures such as animals, allergens, and endotoxins. These exposures may influence immune function, particularly when exposed at a young age, and subsequently affect later cancer risk.

The Agricultural Health Study (AHS) is a prospective cohort study of farmers and their spouses residing in North Carolina and Iowa, and commercial pesticide applicators residing in Iowa. At enrollment (1993-7) women (farmers and spouses of farmers) provided information on their children born since 1975, including name, gender, SSN and dates of birth. In previous analyses conducted using Iowa AHS data only for cancer incidence and all-cause mortality in children under the age of 19, findings suggested increased risks of incident cancer among these children associated with the use of certain pesticides by their parents. The mortality analysis focused on fatal injuries sustained, indicative of the dangerous nature of working on the farm6. In collaboration with researchers at the University of Iowa, we are currently updating the previous analysis with new cancer incidence information through 2011 and information provided by the University of Iowa, which has performed a linkage to Iowa birth certificates to identify additional children born to AHS participants from 1975-2009.

With this proposal, we are proposing to further expand the linkages in Iowa to include children not previously included, and to link to the North Carolina registries for the first time to identify additional 2 births, cancer incidence and mortality. This will establish a unique cohort of agriculturally exposed offspring, with comprehensive information on their parents farming practices, as well as other information. These data will be used to evaluate the hypothesis that early life agricultural exposures influence cancer risk. Previous analyses have only focused on childhood cancers; we will include cancers diagnosed from birth through adulthood.

Early Life Exposures in Agriculture

Study title	NCT ID	Conditions	Interventions	Eligibility	Organization	Link
Agriculture Health Study	NCT00352924	Prostate Cancer Pesticide Expos... Lymphoma Multiple Myelom...		18 Years -	National Institutes of Health Clinical Center (CC)
Early Life Exposures in Agriculture	NCT02743481	Testicular Canc... Leukemia Lymphoma Brain Cancer		7 Years - 46 Years	National Institutes of Health Clinical Center (CC)

Spots Global Cancer Trial Database for agriculture

Every month we try and update this database with for agriculture cancer trials from around the world to help patients and their families find trials that might be right for them.
We offer this 100% free of charge and do not endorse any of the trials listed here, we hope it helps you or a loved one.

Spots Global Cancer Trial Database for agriculture

Every month we try and update this database with for agriculture cancer trials from around the world to help patients and their families find trials that might be right for them. We offer this 100% free of charge and do not endorse any of the trials listed here, we hope it helps you or a loved one.

Every month we try and update this database with for agriculture cancer trials from around the world to help patients and their families find trials that might be right for them.
We offer this 100% free of charge and do not endorse any of the trials listed here, we hope it helps you or a loved one.