This is the first report on an occupational bladder cancer in Korea. The ease is 41 years old man who worked as a dyer for 17 years at two dyeing factories, which handled nylon and polyester fabrics in Taegu. He was exposed to many kinds of dyes during weighing, mixing, dissolving and dyeing processes. Among many kinds of acid, disperse and direct dyes that he has been exposed to, several dyes have confirmed to contain benzidine-based dyes, one was o-tolidine-based dye, and one was o-dianisidine-based dye. He visited a hospital due to the gross hematuria and urinary frequency in June, 1998, and he had radical cystectomy with ileal conduit diversion. He had smoked a half-pack of cigarette for 20 years. The main risk factor of bladder cancer is smoking, however, he was relatively a light smoker than usual Korean men. He was exposed to the definite occupational carcinogen even though the level was relatively lower than that of dye manufacturers. His age was younger than the prevalence age of bladder cancer caused by smoking. These evidences support that the dyer' s bladder cancer could be related to the occupational exposure to benzidine-based dyes.
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Occupational Reproductive Function Abnormalities and Bladder Cancer in Korea Jungsun Park, Kyong-Sok Shin, Yangho Kim Journal of Korean Medical Science.2010; 25(Suppl): S41. CrossRef
Occupational Diseases in Korea Seong-Kyu Kang, Eun A Kim Journal of Korean Medical Science.2010; 25(Suppl): S4. CrossRef
This study was conducted to integrate the results of studies which assess the relationship between bladder cancer and Glutathione S transferase mu genetic polymorphism. We retrieved the literatures using MEDLINE search, with bladder cancer and Glutathione S transferase as key words, which were reported from 1980 to October 1998. The criteria for quality evaluation were as follows; 1) The paper should have histologically confirmed bladder cancer as case definition. 2) The paper should use the GSTM1 gene typing as method for analysis. Among 59 retrieved articles, fourteen studies were selected for quantitative meta-analysis. The overall effect size of the risk of bladder cancer due to GSTM1 was calculated by common odds ratio. Before the integration of each effect sizes into common effect sizes, the homogeneity test were conducted. All studies were case control design and cases were transitional cell carcinoma or squamous cell carcinoma of bladder. And only four papers used matching technique. Homogeneity of studies were rejected by Breslow-Day test(P<0.01), so random effect model was used for evaluation of odds ratio. The overall odds ratio of GSTM1 associated with bladder cancer was 1.55 (95% confidence interval 1.27 to 1.90) and cumulative odds ratio became more stable when the study subjects were over 1,500. Our result suggested that positive association be found between GSTM1 genetic polymorphism and bladder cancer.
Owing to the development of molecular biological techniques to identify new biomarkers of bladder cancer, the information obtained from the studios in which newly developed biomarkers are applied potentially useful in screening of general population, diagnosis of patients, predicting biological behavior and prognosis, and exposure assessments. Despite of rapid development there are a few review about the biomarkers in bladder cancer from which grogs summary of results as well as their optimal function can be considered. This study was carried out in biomarkers of bladder cancer by reviewing the literature to assess the usefulness and stapes of researches for biomarkers of bladder cancer on high risk groups, general population and patients. The biomarkers of bladder cancer were classified by Weinstein's model of carcinogenesis, simple classification of exposure-discase in classical epidemiology, classification by conception of exposure-disease continuum on molecular epidemiology, and application of biomarkers. Two biomarkers, N-acetylation enzyme and Glutathion S-transferase, which had been studied extensively in molecular epidemiology were selected and reviewed. Although the generalization, prediction and diagnosis of bladder cancer based on a single biomarker give rise to trouble due to intravariation of bladder tumor and heterogeneity of biomarkers variation, searching for more specific tumor markers may accurately lead better prediction of prognosis and better estimation of treatment response. The usefulness of both N-acetylation enzyme and glutathion 5-transferase in high-risk groups who have exposes to carcinogen may be more valuable. However more informations are neede in order to apply these biomarkers in clinical practices in further studies.