Abstract 4218: Cancer prevalence among Ohio firefighters: data from the Ohio Cancer Incidence Surveillance System (OCISS) 1996-2019
Authors: Olivo-Marston Susan E. , Singh Shashank , Hood Robert B. , Adetona Olorunfemi 
Published: April 2023

Firefighting is classified as a Group 1 carcinogen or “carcinogenic to humans” by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. Compared to the general population, firefighters have a 9% increased risk of cancer incidence and a 14% increased risk of cancer mortality. Although there have been previous studies of cancer incidence among firefighters in Florida and Massachusetts, there have been no studies examining cancer incidence among firefighters in the state of Ohio. Therefore, this is the first study to examine cancer prevalence among Ohio firefighters. The study utilized data from the Ohio Cancer Incidence Surveillance System (OCISS), the Ohio state cancer registry. This study examined data from 1996-2019, including a total of 1,314,318 people. Occupation was classified as firefighter, police, or general population. The odds of being a firefighter versus a police officer or the general population was calculated for specific cancer types. In addition, this analysis was stratified by gender. Police were used as a comparison group because it is an occupation similar to firefighters with the exception of exposure. There was a total of 3,397 firefighters, 3,341 police, and 1,307,580 people in the general population. Among firefighters, they were mostly male (86.8%), White (92.7%), Non-Hispanic (3.4%), married (67.7%), and never used tobacco (19.8%). The mean age at cancer diagnosis among firefighters was 66 years and most of them were diagnosed between 2010 and 2014. A similar distribution was seen among police except the mean age at cancer diagnosis was 63 years and most of them were current tobacco users (18.5%). The distribution was similar among the general population except the majority of them were female (51.6%). Firefighters had increased odds of esophageal cancer, cancers of the soft tissue including the heart, skin, prostate, testis, bladder, and brain compared to the general population. Cancer of the oral cavity, pharynx, and kidney were also increased among firefighters; however, they did not reach statistical significance. Compared to police, firefighters had increased odds of breast, uterine, prostate, brain, and thyroid cancer. In addition, they had decreased odds of pancreatic and bladder cancer. When stratified by gender, among the 2,948 male firefighters, there were increased odds of cancer of the soft tissue including heart, prostate, brain, cranial nerves, and thyroid cancer compared to the general population. They also had decreased odds of cancer of the larynx, lung & bronchus, and bladder. Number of female firefighters was small generating unstable odds ratios. We observed increased prevalence of several types of cancer among Ohio firefighters, similar to previous studies. Although there were limitations present due to many people lacking data on occupation, the current study supports that Ohio firefighters have an increased risk of many different types of cancer.

Citation Format: Susan E. Olivo-Marston, Shashank Singh, Robert B. Hood, Olorunfemi Adetona. Cancer prevalence among Ohio firefighters: data from the Ohio Cancer Incidence Surveillance System (OCISS) 1996-2019. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2023; Part 1 (Regular and Invited Abstracts); 2023 Apr 14-19; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(7_Suppl):Abstract nr 4218.