Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 May 25:9:647120.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2021.647120. eCollection 2021.

Association Between Rare Earth Element Cerium and the Risk of Oral Cancer: A Case-Control Study in Southeast China

Baochang He  1   2   3 , Jing Wang  4 , Jing Lin  1   2 , Jinfa Chen  4 , Zhaocheng Zhuang  1   2 , Yihong Hong  1   2 , Lingjun Yan  1   2 , Lisong Lin  3 , Bin Shi  3 , Yu Qiu  3 , Lizhen Pan  3 , Xiaoyan Zheng  3 , Fengqiong Liu  1   2 , Fa Chen  1   2
Affiliations

Association Between Rare Earth Element Cerium and the Risk of Oral Cancer: A Case-Control Study in Southeast China

Baochang He et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

Cerium (Ce), the most abundant of rare earth elements in the earth's crust, has received much health concerns due to its wide application in industry, agriculture, and medicine. The current study aims to evaluate whether there is an association between Ce exposures and the risk of developing oral cancer. Serum Ce level of 324 oral cancer patients and 650 matched healthy controls were measured by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Association between Ce level and the risk of oral cancer was estimated with an unconditional logistic regression model. Serum Ce concentrations in the oral cancer patients and controls were 0.57 (0.21-3.02) μg/L and 2.27 (0.72-4.26) μg/L, respectively. High level of Ce was associated with a decreased risk of oral cancer (OR: 0.60, 95% CI: 0.43-0.84). Stronger inverse associations between high level of Ce and oral cancer risk were observed among those with smoking (OR: 0.46, 95% CI: 0.27-0.79), drinking (OR: 0.50, 95% CI: 0.26-0.96), limited intake of leafy vegetables (OR: 0.40, 95% CI: 0.22-0.71) and fish (OR: 0.52, 95% CI: 0.33-0.83). There were significant multiplicative interactions between Ce level and alcohol drinking or intake of leafy vegetables and fish (all Pinteraction <0.05). This preliminary case-control study suggests an inverse association between high serum Ce level and the risk of oral cancer. Further prospective studies with a larger sample size are needed to confirm the findings.

Keywords: cerium; inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry; oral cancer; rare earth elements; risk assessment.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Distribution of serum Ce in case and control groups.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% CIs for the serum Ce stratified by environmental factors.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Receiver operating characteristic curve of different multifactor models for predicting oral cancer risk.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Bray F, Ferlay J, Soerjomataram I, Siegel RL, Torre LA, Jemal A. Global cancer statistics 2018: GLOBOCAN estimates of incidence and mortality worldwide for 36 cancers in 185 countries. CA Cancer J Clin. (2018) 68:394–424. 10.3322/caac.21492 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Chen F, Lin L, Yan L, Liu F, Qiu Y, Wang J, et al. . Nomograms and risk scores for predicting the risk of oral cancer in different sexes: a large-scale case-control study. J Cancer. (2018) 9:2543–8. 10.7150/jca.24431 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Chen F, Yan L, Lin L, Liu F, Qiu Y, Wang J, et al. . Dietary score and the risk of oral cancer: a case-control study in southeast China. Oncotarget. (2017) 8:34610–6. 10.18632/oncotarget.16659 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Montini T, Melchionna M, Monai M, Fornasiero P. Fundamentals and catalytic applications of CeO2-based materials. Chem Rev. (2016) 116:5987–6041. 10.1021/acs.chemrev.5b00603 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Dahle JT, Arai Y. Environmental geochemistry of cerium: applications and toxicology of cerium oxide nanoparticles. Int J Environ Res Public Health. (2015) 12:1253–78. 10.3390/ijerph120201253 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types