Occupational exposure and liver cancer in women: results of the Multicentre International Liver Tumour Study (MILTS)

The association of occupational variables and hepatocellular cancer (HCC) i s discussed with particular reference to women. as little research has been undertaken on their behalf. This paper reports the results of an internati onal case-control study concerning women and involves 317 cases of HCC and 1789 controls. Working in the chemical industry was shown to have only a ma rginally significant risk associated with HCC: adjusted odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval 2.37 (1.04-5.41). Other non-significantly elevated ORs were observed in the pharmaceutical. plastics, PVC-producing, farming and butchery industries. Little consistency was found among the risk estima tes for HCC, based on three different analytical approaches. None of the an alyses showed a linear trend of risk with increasing duration of exposure. However, the numbers of exposed cases and controls were small for many of t he occupations and therefore the study power and precision were low. We fai led to find important and consistent evidence for a relationship between HC C in women and occupational variables. However, even weak evidence of occup ational risk warrants careful consideration in future studies.