Researchers investigating the effects of parabens – compounds used as preservatives used in hair and personal care products – have found they may increase growth in black women’s breast cancer cell lines.
In the US, black women are 39% more likely to die from breast cancer than white women, according to the American Association for Cancer Research. Now, a study presented at the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Atlanta found while parabens ‘increased the growth of a black breast cancer cell line, they did not increase growth in a white breast cancer cell line’.
Research co-author Professor Lindsey Trevino, from City of Hope cancer research organisation in Los Angeles, told medicalnewstoday.com: ‘The effects we observe on cell growth and hormone-related gene expression in this study give us a clue that paraben exposure may promote breast cancer progression.
‘The findings are important because we know hair products marketed to and used by black women contain parabens, which have been found at higher concentrations in urine samples from black women in the US compared to other racial or ethnic groups.’
In the study, researchers treated two breast cancer cell lines – one from West African ancestry and the other from European ancestry – with methylparaben (MP), propylparaben (PP) or butylparaben (BP), as well as an estrogen receptor antagonist (to see whether any observed effects were mediated by estrogen). They found:
- BP increased the number of cancer cells from West African ancestry but not European ancestry; and
- BP and PP, but not MP, increased the expression of estrogen- regulated genes in both cell lines ‘suggesting their effects may be mediated by estrogen’.
Professor Trevino summed up: ‘Ultimately we will use the information to develop community interventions to help black women reduce their exposure to parabens and other endocrine-disrupting chemicals found in their personal care products.’
