INTERNATIONAL RENAL-CELL CANCER STUDY .4. OCCUPATION

The relationship between renal-cell cancer (RCC) and occupation was in vestigated in an international multicenter population-based case-contr ol study. Study centers in Australia, Denmark, Germany, Sweden and the United States interviewed 1732 incident RCC cases and 2309 controls. Significant associations were found with employment in the blast-furna ce or the coke-oven industry [relative risk (RR), 1.7; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.1-2.7], the iron and steel industry (RR, 1.6; 95% CI, 1.2-2.2) and exposure to asbestos(RR, 1.4; 95% CI, 1.1-1.8), cadmium (RR, 2.0; 95% CI, 1.0-3.9), dry-cleaning solvents (RR, 1.4; 95% CI, 1. 1-1.7), gasoline (RR, 1.6; 95% CI, 1.2-2.0) and other petroleum produc es(RR, 1.6; 95% CI, 1.3-2.1). Asbestos, petroleum products and dry-cle aning solvents appear to merit further investigation, in view of the r elationship between risk and duration of employment or exposure and af ter adjustment for confounding. There was a negative association betwe en RCC and education, but it was not consistent across all centers. Ov erall, the results of our multicenter case-control study suggest that occupation may be more important in the etiology of RCC than indicated by earlier studies. (C) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.