2015, Pages 177–200
Chapter 10 – Endocrine Disruption and Cancer of Reproductive Tissues
This
chapter discusses the potential for endocrine-disrupting chemicals
(EDCs) to influence the development of cancer in female
endocrine-sensitive tissues of the breast, endometrium, ovary, and
cervix, and in male hormone-regulated tissues of the prostate, testis,
and breast. Hanahan and Weinberg have established a framework for
understanding the complexity of cancer development through their
definition of hallmarks and enabling characteristics, and this offers
the opportunity to explore the ability of complex environmental mixtures
of EDCs to affect cancer. It is not necessary for each EDC to affect
all the hallmarks, but if a mixture of EDCs can together affect all the
hallmarks, and do so at environmentally relevant concentrations
measurable in human tissues, then there is the potential for cancer
development.
Keywords
- Endocrine disruption;
- breast cancer;
- cervical cancer;
- endometrial cancer;
- hallmarks of cancer;
- ovarian cancer;
- prostate cancer;
- testicular cancer
