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Departments of Epidemiology [L. A. J., J. T. G., T. L. V.] and Pathobiology [S-P. W., J. T. G.], School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of Washington; Center for Health Studies [L. A. J.], Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound; and Program in Epidemiology [V. N-S., T. L. V.], Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington 98101
| Abstract |
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16 was independently
associated with risk of lung cancer among subjects <60 years of age
[odds ratio (OR), 2.67; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.215.89]
but not among older subjects (OR, 0.69; 95% CI, 0.341.43). Among
subjects <60 years of age, there was suggestive evidence of a stronger
association among current smokers (OR 4.31; 95% CI, 1.3613.68) than
former smokers (OR 1.50; 95% CI, 0.484.75; P for
interaction term, 0.26). Additional studies, including prospective
serological evaluations, are needed to further assess the possible
significance of this association. | Introduction |
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A recent study conducted among participants in the ATBC
study3
first suggested a potential association between infection with C.
pneumoniae and risk of lung cancer (4)
. The ATBC
study was a randomized trial of
-tocopherol and ß-carotene
supplementation for prevention of lung cancer among male smokers 5069
years of age in southwestern Finland. In a nested case-control study,
52% of cases compared with 45% of controls met a serological
criterion that included detection of anti-C. pneumoniae IgA
antibodies and immune complexes in specimens obtained at enrollment and
at year 3 of follow-up (but prior to the diagnosis of lung cancer for
cases). After controlling for age, years of smoking, and number of
cigarettes per day, cases were significantly more likely to meet the
serological criterion than controls (OR, 1.6; 95% CI, 1.02.3). The
association was evident only among persons 5059 years (OR, 2.9; 95%
CI, 1.55.4) and not among the older age group (OR, 0.9; 95% CI,
0.51.6).
A second study from Sweden compared the results of serological testing
of specimens obtained at the time of bronchoscopic diagnosis of lung
cancer for cases with that of control groups of healthy adults and
persons with CHD (5)
. In analyses that did not control for
smoking status or age, male lung cancer patients were more likely to
have IgG titers
512 than male CHD controls, and both male and female
lung cancer patients were more likely to have IgA titers
64 than
sex-matched CHD controls.
The findings from these two studies are consistent with a hypothesis that chronic inflammation, resulting from persistent C. pneumoniae infection, may be an etiological factor in the occurrence of lung cancer among smokers. To further evaluate this question, we tested specimens obtained from a western Washington population-based case-control study of males with lung cancer for serum IgG, IgA, and IgM antibodies for C. pneumoniae.
| Materials and Methods |
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Male controls were identified by random digit dialing from the same geographical area over the same time period and frequency matched to cases by 5-year age groups (6) . Overall, 8129 residential phone numbers were identified, of which 7870 (96.8%) were successfully screened for an eligible control. A total of 1047 eligible controls were identified and approached for interview, of which 883 (84.3%) were successfully interviewed. Seven controls without a residential telephone 1 year before the interview were excluded, leaving 876 for analyses.
Trained interviewers conducted structured telephone interviews with cases and controls that inquired about demographics, history of exposure to tobacco products, and occupational and residential histories. All questions referred to the time period before the reference date, which was 1 year before the diagnosis for cases and 1 year before ascertainment for controls. If a subject were deceased before the interview could be arranged, or too ill, a proxy respondent (usually the wife) was interviewed. This occurred for 45.0% of case and 3.3% of control interviews. An additional 3.7% of case and 1.7% of control interviews were conducted with the assistance of a proxy. Clinical information including histological type and stage at diagnosis was determined from medical records.
Subjects eligible for the blood collection phase of the study, which are the focus of this report, included those who resided in one the six largest counties closest to the Cancer Center. The interview response rates for cases and controls in these counties were virtually identical to those of the entire study. Of the 584 cases with completed interviews in these counties, 338 were alive at the time of interview (i.e., were not proxy interviews) and could be approached for a blood specimen. We successfully obtained a blood specimen from 275 (81.4%) of those with non-proxy interviews, representing 47.1% of all cases who were interviewed. The overall response rate for cases, taking into account the proportions of participants who completed the interview and provided a blood specimen, was 41.6% (88.4% x 47.1%). Of the 592 controls with completed interviews in these counties, 585 were alive at interview; we obtained a blood specimen from 502 (85.8%) of those with non-proxy interviews, representing 84.8% of all controls who were interviewed. The overall response rate for controls, taking into account the proportions of participants who completed the screening and interview and provided a blood specimen, was 69.2% (96.8% x 84.3% x 84.8%).
Because 95.3% of cases in the study were Caucasian (reflecting the
underlying population of the 11-county area) and 97.1% of the cases
had ever smoked cigarettes, we restricted our analyses for this report
to white ever-smokers. Among that group, all cases and controls <60
years of age and an
50% random sample of those 60 years and older
were selected to yield 148 cases and 148 controls. Of those, six
subjects were excluded because adequate serum samples were not
available for testing, leaving 143 cases and 147 controls in the study
population.
Serological Testing.
The microimmunofluorescence test (7)
was used to detect
C. pneumoniae-specific IgG, IgM, and IgA antibodies. Titers
are expressed as reciprocals of serum dilution. All assays were
performed by a single observer who was unaware of the case or control
status of the specimens. Seropositivity to IgG, IgA, or IgM was defined
a priori as a titer
16. In the risk factor analyses,
subjects with IgA titers
16 were compared with those with
undetectable titers (<8); subjects with titers of 8 were excluded.
Statistical Analysis.
Fishers exact test was used to compare differences in proportions of
categorical variables; students t test was used to compare
differences in means of continuous variables. To examine the
relationship between IgA seropositivity to C. pneumoniae and
lung cancer, an unconditional logistic regression model was used to
calculate the logs of the odds of an IgA titer
16 after
stratification by age (<60 or
60 years) with adjustment for smoking
status (current or former), pack-years (<40 or
40), and educational
level (less than high school, high school, or more than high school).
| Results |
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16 was detected in equal proportions, 80%, of cases
and controls. IgM antibodies were not detected in any sample. IgA
titers
16 were detected in 47% of cases and 38% of controls overall
(P = 0.15; Table 2
16 tended to decrease with
age whereas among controls this proportion tended to increase with age.
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60 years) and IgA titer
16 (P < 0.01
for the interaction term of age group and seropositivity); therefore,
the analysis was conducted after stratification by age group. Among
persons <60 years of age, IgA titer
16 was independently associated
with case status (Table 3)
60 years of age.
Further stratification of persons <60 years of age by smoking status
revealed a strong and statistically significant association between IgA
seropositivity and lung cancer among current smokers but only a modest
increase in risk among former smokers (Table 3)
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| Discussion |
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16, was independently
associated with lung cancer among subjects <60 years of age but not
among older subjects. Despite differences in the study design and
serological definitions used, these results are very similar to those
reported by Laurila et al. (4)
in their
prospective nested case-control study conducted among participants in
the ATBC study, in which the association between serological evidence
of infection (defined as IgA titer
16 in both samples or IgA titer
16 in the year 3 sample and immune complexes titer
4 in both
samples) and risk of lung cancer also was restricted to persons <60
years of age. Both study populations included only male ever-smokers. These findings are clearly not sufficient to conclude that there is a biological relationship between C. pneumoniae infection and lung cancer, but they suggest a hypothesis that persistent pulmonary infection with C. pneumoniae may be a risk factor for lung cancer among younger male smokers. If true, this risk could be a consequence of a chronic inflammatory stimulus. Chronic inflammation can play a role in the development of cancer, as demonstrated by the association of gastroesophageal reflux disease and esophageal adenocarcinoma (8 , 9) . Inflammation resulting from persistent bacterial infection may also be associated with certain cancers. For example, IgG seropositivity to Helicobacter pylori is associated with an increased risk of gastric adenocarcinoma (10, 11, 12) and primary gastric non-Hodgkins lymphoma (13) . The common pathway in the development of these cancers is believed to be infection resulting in chronic gastritis, which then leads to epithelial or lymphoid hyperplasia, increasing the risk of malignant transformation of those tissues.
Although C. pneumoniae infection has not been previously
associated with malignancy, the organism has been implicated as a cause
of immunopathology in other settings. In rabbit and murine models,
experimental infection with C. pneumoniae has been
documented to accelerate the progression of aortic atherosclerotic-like
lesions (1
, 2) . Because atherosclerosis is largely an
inflammatory process (14)
, this effect supports the
potential for chronic C. pneumoniae infection to act as an
inflammatory stimulus. C. pneumoniae in vitro
infection of human alveolar macrophages and peripheral blood
mononuclear cells has also been demonstrated to induce secretion of
cytokines, including tumor necrosis factor-
and interleukin 1ß
(15
, 16)
. Furthermore, chronic or repeated infection with
C. trachomatis has been implicated as an inflammatory
stimulus in the pathogenesis of trachoma and pelvic inflammatory
disease (17)
. Thus, it is plausible to consider induction
of an inflammatory response as one potential mechanism by which
C. pneumoniae infection could be causally associated with
the development of lung cancer.
One factor limiting the interpretation of these results is the
uncertain relationship between IgG or IgA antibodies and the presence
of persistent C. pneumoniae infection. Although IgA is
believed by some to be a more specific marker of chronic or persistent
C. pneumoniae infection than IgG, because the half-life of
IgA is only
6 days compared with 23 days for IgG (18)
,
and an association between elevated IgA titers and risk of
cardiovascular disease has been reported in some studies (2
, 19, 20, 21)
, the sensitivity and specificity of this marker have not
been determined. The lack of a true gold standard for persistent
infection hampers efforts to validate potential serological markers
(22)
.
Another potential limitation is the relatively low overall response rate for blood collection, particularly among the cases. This raises the possibility that the seropositivity rates found in these analyses are not representative of all cases from the underlying population. The low response rate among cases is primarily attributable to their short survival. To the extent that antibody status to C. pneumoniae is related to length of survival after lung cancer diagnosis, our results would over- or underestimate the association with lung cancer. However, we are not aware of any data that suggest such a relationship.
It has been suggested that smoking may be associated with IgG or IgA seropositivity rates to C. pneumoniae. Because all of the subjects in this study were current or former smokers and because the association persisted after adjustment for smoking variables, confounding by smoking status is an unlikely explanation for this apparent association, although it is possible that there could be residual confounding by another variable. The retrospective design of this study is also a limitation because it cannot be determined from these results whether the serological evidence of C. pneumoniae infection among the cases preceded the disease.
In summary, although these results are clearly not sufficient to conclude that C. pneumoniae infection is a cause of lung cancer, they do provide additional evidence in support of this hypothesis. They should be followed by larger prospective studies, that ideally would include women and nonsmokers, to further evaluate the potential for C. pneumoniae infection to act as a predisposing factor for lung cancer.
| Footnotes |
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1 To whom requests for reprints should be
addressed, at Center for Health Studies, 1730 Minor Avenue, Suite 1600,
Seattle, WA 98101. Phone: (206) 442-5216; Fax: (206) 287-4677;
E-mail: lajack{at}u.washington.edu ![]()
2 Present address: Center for Research on
Occupational and Environmental Toxicology, Oregon Health Sciences
University, Portland, OR 97201. ![]()
3 The abbreviations used are: ATBC study,
Alpha-Tocopherol, Beta-Carotene Cancer Prevention Study; OR, odds
ratio; CI, confidence interval; CHD, coronary heart disease. ![]()
Received 1/11/00; revised 8/25/00; accepted 9/11/00.
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