Book contents
- Environmental Impacts on Reproductive Health and Fertility
- Environmental Impacts on Reproductive Health and Fertility
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Environmental contaminants and exposure
- 3. Development and maturation of the normal female reproductive system
- 4 Development and maturation of the normal male reproductive system
- 5 Modern genetics of reproductive biology
- 6. Mechanisms of endocrine disruption
- 7. Developmental exposures and implications for early and latent disease
- 8 Wildlife as sentinels of environmental impacts on reproductive health and fertility
- 9 Environmental contaminants and effects on timing and progression of human pubertal development
- 10 Environmental contaminants and impacts on healthy and successful pregnancies
- 11 Environmental contaminants and reproductive and fertility effects in the male
- 12. Environmental contaminants, female reproductive health and fertility
- 13 Environmental contaminants and related systems that have implications for reproduction
- 14 Environmental contaminants and cancers of the reproductive tract
- 15 Communicating with patients and the public about environmental exposures and reproductive risk
- 16 Interpreting science in the policy context
- 17 Conclusions – what does all this mean, and where are we going?
- Index
14 - Environmental contaminants and cancers of the reproductive tract
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 February 2010
Book contents
- Environmental Impacts on Reproductive Health and Fertility
- Environmental Impacts on Reproductive Health and Fertility
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Environmental contaminants and exposure
- 3. Development and maturation of the normal female reproductive system
- 4 Development and maturation of the normal male reproductive system
- 5 Modern genetics of reproductive biology
- 6. Mechanisms of endocrine disruption
- 7. Developmental exposures and implications for early and latent disease
- 8 Wildlife as sentinels of environmental impacts on reproductive health and fertility
- 9 Environmental contaminants and effects on timing and progression of human pubertal development
- 10 Environmental contaminants and impacts on healthy and successful pregnancies
- 11 Environmental contaminants and reproductive and fertility effects in the male
- 12. Environmental contaminants, female reproductive health and fertility
- 13 Environmental contaminants and related systems that have implications for reproduction
- 14 Environmental contaminants and cancers of the reproductive tract
- 15 Communicating with patients and the public about environmental exposures and reproductive risk
- 16 Interpreting science in the policy context
- 17 Conclusions – what does all this mean, and where are we going?
- Index
Summary
This chapter discusses the major reproductive tract cancers that occur in the human population. In males, evidence for risks of testicular and prostate cancer as a function of exposure to endocrine disrupting agents is examined while in females, cancers of the breast, ovaries, and endometrium is evaluated. In men, chronically elevated estrogens have been associated with increased risk of prostate cancer. Similar to the prostate, breast cancer is a hormonally driven cancer and one major identified risk factor for breast cancer is an increased lifetime exposure to estrogens. Unlike ovarian cancer, endometrial cancer presents with symptoms such as unusual vaginal bleeding, abnormal discharge, and pelvic pain. Since a major risk factor for endometrial cancer is estrogen action unopposed by progesterone, exposure to estrogens or estrogen agonists from pesticides, herbicides, and other environmental contaminants have the potential to play a role in endometrial cancer initiation or promotion.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010