PhD student: Tenimba Diarra
Title: Exposure to agricultural pesticides and road traffic air pollution and risk of lymphomas and bone tumors in children
Supervisor: Stéphanie Goujon
Doctoral school: ED393 Pierre Louis de Santé Publique : Epidémiologie et Sciences de l’Information Biomédicale
Promotion : 2025-2028
Funding: Fondation de France
Thesis abstract
In France, approximately 2,250 cancers are diagnosed each year in children aged 0-17. While some cancers are specific to very young children (embryonal tumors, certain leukemias), lymphomas (320 cases/year) and bone tumors (130 cases/year) occur primarily after age 10 (>75% of cases).
While some risk factors (mainly genetic or infectious) are well known, they only explain a small proportion of the observed cases. Questions remain regarding the impact of environmental exposures on these cancers, particularly exposure to pesticides and road traffic air pollution, which are strongly suspected of increasing the risk of leukemias and central nervous system tumors in children. However, knowledge on this subject remains very limited.
This thesis aims to explore the link between residential exposure to agricultural pesticides and road traffic air pollution and the occurrence of lymphomas and bone tumors in children in mainland France, over the period 2011–2021.
The project will draw on data from the French National Childhood Cancer Registry (RNCE) and the GEOCAP-Diag case-control study. Exposure to agricultural pesticides and road traffic pollution will be assessed at the geocoded residential addresses of xxxx lymphomas and bone tumors cases and 66 000 population controls, using annual crop maps combined with a crop-exposure matrix, and maps of road traffic and PM2.5, black carbon, and NO2 concentrations. We will use age-adjusted unconditional logistic regression models and polytomous models for cancer subtype specific analyses’ to estimate odds ratios and their confidence intervals.
This project, based on high-quality national data and a rigorous methodology, will provide knowledge on the role of exposure to pesticides and traffic-related air pollution in these pediatric cancers, which have been little studied until now and for which the etiology remains largely unknown.
