CANCER

Cancer is among the leading illnesses causing death in the world. According to (Gracia-

Cazaña et al., 2020), the prevalence of recent cases in the United States is 442.4 in every 100,000

persons per year. Besides, the statistics also suggest that the mortality rate of cancer is 158.3 out

of 100,000 persons yearly. These statistics were based on cases from 2013 to 2017. Leukemia is

among the most significant cancers in children aged 15 years or less. In regards to (Henley et al.,

2017), even though in most cases the cause of leukemia is unspecified, the authors suggest that

environmental risk elements in regards to genetic predisposition are connected to the

development of cancerous cells. Additionally, various researches have suggested that childhood

leukemia is highly associated with maternal elements mostly during pregnancy. This concept has

been supported by a study conducted by (Herceg et al., 2018). The results of the study suggested

that kids whose mothers were subjected to pesticides during pregnancy were highly susceptible

to developing the manifestations of leukemia than the control group. Besides, this theory has also

been supported by (Juarez & Matthews-Juarez, 2018), who indicated that there was an

incremented risk of experiencing the leukemic condition in kids whose mothers often had

prenatal exposure to pesticides in the home and garden. This indicates that the embryo in the

uterus can be highly sensitive to carcinogenic impacts of pesticides. Besides, another research on

occupation exposome related to prostate cancer suggested that there were majorly excessive risks

for workers at perfume and soap, agriculture-associated companies, plastic companies, and

leather manufacturing companies. As such, the results indicated that there were highly

incremented standardized prevalence ratios in farmers, specific occupations, and companies with

exposures to fertilizers, herbicides, cadmium, and men with minimal physical activity had

increased risk of experiencing cancerous manifestations (Louis et al., 2017). As such, it is highly

crucial to address the exposome of cancer from a federal, state, local, household, and individual
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perspective to combat cancer. Even though some of the exposomes of cancer such as pesticides,

are very crucial to the agricultural sector, we can apply the concept from Rachel Carson who

fought against the application of DDT. This is because, although the insecticide eradicated

malaria as shown from the statistics (In the 1940s, before the implementation of DDT, cases of

malaria were approximately 100million but by the 1960s malaria had been eradicated), Rachel

argued that the insecticide had a negative impact on the environment. As such federal

government can apply this concept by making reforms that would lead to the eradication of

chemicals such as chloropicrin which various researchers have suggested that they are highly

related to the development of cancerous cells due to long exposures. Also, since various

researches have suggested that workers employed in industries like plastic companies (utilize

Vinyl Chloride) are highly susceptible to cancer manifestations, the federal government should

impose strict measures on these companies like imposing huge fines/shutting them down for

failure to providing their employees with protective gears. Also, since exposome is very dynamic

and as such hard to measure and that the level of concentration of endogenous and exogenous

chemicals vary over time between populations and within individuals (Neveu et al., 2020), the

government should fund long-term researches that aim at understanding the supplication of

exposures between populations and over time, plus how these exposures alter over an

individual’s lifetime. Besides, various equipment and strategies can be utilized to refine the

assessment of exposures and upgrade the capability to measure accurately the diverse personal

exposures that lead to cancer. However, for the strategy to be effective, it will necessitate the

integration of approaches that will incorporate validated biomarkers and environmental

measurements (Pisani, Bray, & Parkin, 2020). In regards to the local perspective, foundations

should be started to give more voice on the effects of these harmful exposures that lead to cancer
CANCER 3

development. One example is the statewide coalition Californians for Pesticide Reform which

focuses on the eradication of harmful fumigant pesticides and in recent was fighting the phasing-

out of cancer-causing chloropicrin (Segura, 2018). The foundation argued that the

representatives of the Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) were ignoring the realities on

the ground including findings from their scientists and that they were enabling widespread

application of a very toxic, drift-prone, and volatile chemical (chloropicrin) in schools,

worksites, and homes located in California. As such, through local organizations like this,

persons will be able to raise more awareness of the impacts that these exposures are causing

(development of cancer). At the individual level, there are various things that can be done to

prevent the exposome of cancer. The most crucial thing is for individual responsibility. In this

case, since tobacco- use has been associated with causing prostate cancer (Schettler, 2020),

persons should stop/minimize the application of tobacco-use and alcohol, also, the state should

impose strict regulation like drawings of the bodily effects on the packages of these items, as

well as raising their tax. Furthermore, persons should ensure that they are wearing protective

gear when working around harmful products like pesticides and herbicides. Moreover, since

white-collar jobs have been associated with the development of cancer, workers should ensure

that they have time to do exercises like jogging, walking, or yoga. Besides, pregnant women

should ensure that they protect themselves from harmful products that may lead to the

development of leukemic manifestations in their unborn kids. Also, people should ensure that

they eat fruits and vegetables regularly to give the body enough nutrients that can combat

reactive oxygen species and protect the body in general (Yang et al., 2018).
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References

Gracia-Cazaña, T., González, S., Parrado, C., Juarranz, Á., & Gilaberte, Y. (2020). Influence of

the exposome on skin cancer. Actas Dermo-Sifiliográficas (English Edition).

Henley, S. J., Anderson, R. N., Thomas, C. C., Massetti, G. M., Peaker, B., & Richardson, L. C.

(2017). Invasive cancer incidence, 2004–2013, and deaths, 2006–2015, in nonmetropolitan and

metropolitan counties—United States. MMWR Surveillance Summaries, 66(14), 1.

Herceg, Z., Ghantous, A., Wild, C. P., Sklias, A., Casati, L., Duthie, S. J., ... & Hernandez‐

Vargas, H. (2018). Roadmap for investigating epigenome deregulation and environmental

origins of cancer. International journal of cancer, 142(5), 874-882.

Juarez, P. D., & Matthews-Juarez, P. (2018). Applying an exposome-wide (ExWAS) approach to

cancer research. Frontiers in oncology, 8, 313.

Louis, L. M., Lerro, C. C., Friesen, M. C., Andreotti, G., Koutros, S., Sandler, D. P., ... &

Freeman, L. E. B. (2017). A prospective study of cancer risk among Agricultural Health Study

farm spouses associated with personal use of organochlorine insecticides. Environmental

Health, 16(1), 1-11.

Neveu, V., Nicolas, G., Salek, R. M., Wishart, D. S., & Scalbert, A. (2020). Exposome-Explorer

2.0: an update incorporating candidate dietary biomarkers and dietary associations with cancer

risk. Nucleic acids research, 48(D1), D908-D912.

Pisani, P., Bray, F., & Parkin, D. M. (2020). Estimates of the world‐wide prevalence of cancer

for 25 sites in the adult population. International journal of cancer, 97(1), 72-81.

Schettler, T. (2020). Abstract IA18: The exposome and cancer.

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Segura, C. A. (2018). Regulation and resistance: pesticides, farmworkers, and the production of

California’s agricultural landscape (Doctoral dissertation).

Yang, H., Villani, R. M., Wang, H., Simpson, M. J., Roberts, M. S., Tang, M., & Liang, X.

(2018). The role of cellular reactive oxygen species in cancer chemotherapy. Journal of

Experimental & Clinical Cancer Research, 37(1), 1-10.