Affection of Exposure to Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances Mixture with Peripheral Blood Cells in Colorectal Cancer Patients

As extensively used chemicals in various consumer products, per-and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are pervasive and could significantly risk human health after environmental exposure. In recent years, studies have reported the association between Per- and PFASs and colorectal cancer (CRC) risk. However, the overall effect of PFASs and mixture exposure on peripheral blood cells count in CRC patients is unclear. The present study collected 287 serum samples of CRC patients at Beijing Hospital in China. A total of 17 PFASs were detected in the serum samples of these patients. Five PFASs were repeatedly detected (detection rate (DR) > 80%) from these recruited CRC patients, these compounds were prioritized for further testing. Single pollution and multiple pollution (Bayesian Kernel Machine Regression) models were used to analyze the relevance between PFAS compounds and peripheral blood cells subgroups, white blood cells, hemoglobin, neutrophils and lymphocytes. The results display that PFAS mixtures exposure is positively correlated with hemoglobin content and lymphocyte count, whereas no correlation with leukocyte count and neutrophil count. For instance, the hemoglobin content in the patients with serum Perfluoro-n-octanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA), perfluorooctane sulfonamide (FOSA) concentrations at the 95th percentile was 12.3% (95% CI: 1.6%, 23.0%), 11.4% (95% CI: 2.6%, 20.1%), and 22.5% (95% CI: 1.0%, 44.0%) higher compared with their threshold level, retroperspectively. In addition, there are no interaction effects between each PFASs in mixture exposure. Our study suggests that exposure to PFASs perhaps interferes with the prognosis of CRC patients. This study will guide future research and public health policies aimed at reducing exposure to PFASs and mitigating their potential impacts on human health. Synopsis: The prognosis of CRC patients perhaps affected by PFAS mixtures exposure.