Radon exposure and genitourinary cancer in miners

Abstract

Objective: To assess the association between exposure to radon and genitourinary cancer in a mining population through a systematic review of the scientific literature. Method: A systematic review of the scientific literature was carried out in MEDLINE (PubMed), combining MeSH (Medical Subject Heading) terms and free terms. We applied a specific scale to assess the quality of the included studies. Results: We included 17 studies; all were cohort studies with the exception of one which was a pooling of data. All studies included analysed the relationship between exposure to radon and genitourinary cancer. While some studies point towards an association between radon exposure and genitourinary cancer, especially kidney cancer, others do not find such association. Conclusions: The included studies showed great heterogeneity. It cannot be concluded that there is an association between exposure to radon and genitourinary cancer. More research is needed on this topic, designing studies with higher statistical power, better control of confounders, and preferably prospective.