Aromatics from fossil fuels and breast cancer
Leena A Hilakivi-Clarke, Theresa Krista B. Jolejole, Joas Lucas da Silva, Fábia de Oliveira Andrade, Gail Dennison, Steffen Mueller · iScience · 2025
through pregnant mothers to environmental pollutants or maternal obesity or both. These early life exposures are shown to increase daughter's later susceptibility to breast cancer by causing in the daughter (1) an increase in the number of structures in the breast in which breast cancer initiation takes place, (2) a suppression, perhaps epigenetically, in the ability of cells to repair DNA damage caused by PAHs by inhibiting expression of tumor suppressor genes, or (3) a persistent gut dysbiosis, which then impacts immune cells in the tumor microenvironment. Among the early life environmental pollutants that increase breast cancer susceptibility may be volatile aromatic BTEX compounds. Thus, aromatics from fossil fuels are likely to be involved in causing breast cancer, and efforts should be directed toward reducing human exposure to these compounds to prevent breast cancer.