Esophageal Cancer, Gastric Cancer and the use of Pesticides in the Southwestern of Turkey

Background: Esophageal and gastric cancer generally have a poor prognosis and may share common riskfactors. It has been demonstrated that the pesticide usage may contribute to development of many cancer types.In this study, the relation between amount of pesticides used in agriculture and esophageal and gastric cancerincidence was researched. Materials and
Methods: Findings from the data bank of the Ministry of HealthProvincial Health Directorate Cancer Records Center between the years of 1998-2010 were used. All patientswho were diagnosed with gastric and esophageal cancer histopathologically were included. Data for annualpesticide usage were obtained from Provincial Agriculture Directorate for the same time period. Statisticalanalysis was performed using the Spearman test.
Results: One thousand eight hundred and ninety-six patientswere involved in the study, 1,233 males (65%) and 663 females (35%), 230 with esophageal cancer (12.1%) and1,666 with gastric cancer (87.9%). No statistically significant relation was apparent between pesticide amountused and esophageal cancer (p: 0.87).
Conclusions: In our study, there was no relationship between pesticideusage and esophageal or gastric cancer. However, the time between pesticide usage and cancer development wasnot known, qualifying the comparison.