Page 94 - JCTR-11-3

Journal of Clinical and

Translational Research

ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Household arsenic and acrolein exposures and

risk of urothelial cell carcinoma

2
2
1
Hannah Peterson , Kyle A. Richards , Tudor Borza , Abigail M. Wiedmer ,
2
Maria T. Jabbour , Margaret A. Knoedler , Erin Mani , Christa Dahman , and
2
3
3
2
Lauren Trepanier *
1
1 Department of Medical Sciences, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Wisconsin-Madison,
Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America
2 Department of Urology, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison,
Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America
3 Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin,
United States of America
Abstract
Background: Smoking accounts for about half of bladder cancer cases in the United
States; however, the etiology of up to one-third of urothelial cell carcinoma (UCC)
remains poorly understood. Acrolein and arsenic are known bladder carcinogens with
documented household exposures. Aim: This study aimed to (i) determine whether
urinary and household exposures to acrolein and inorganic arsenic (iAs) are higher in
*Corresponding author: newly diagnosed UCC patients than in those with benign urologic disease, (ii) assess
Lauren Trepanier whether urinary concentrations reach genotoxic thresholds, and (iii) evaluate how
(lauren.trepanier@wisc.edu) these exposures vary by urbanicity and area deprivation indices. Methods: Patients
Citation: Peterson H, Richards KA, were recruited from the Urology Clinic at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and
Borza T, et al. Household arsenic provided urine, drinking water, and household dust samples. Results: Acrolein
and acrolein exposures and risk
of urothelial cell carcinoma. J Clin exposures (as its stable metabolite 3-hydroxy-propyl-mercapturic acid) did not differ
Transl Res. 2025;11(3):88-98. between cases and controls. Urinary arsenic concentrations were higher in cases
doi: 10.36922/jctr.24.00065 than in controls but did not reach statistical significance (p=0.08). Unadjusted urinary
Received: September 28, 2024 iAs concentrations (reflecting urothelial exposures) ranged from 0.01 to 0.71 μM in
cases and 0.02 – 0.14 μM in controls (p=0.05). No patients reached genotoxic urinary
Revised: January 8, 2025
concentrations of iAs (10 μM) at a single time point. Arsenic concentrations in
Accepted: April 16, 2025 household dust were higher in UCC (0.42 ng/cm ) compared to control households
2
2
Published online: May 21, 2025 (0.29 ng/cm ; p=0.007). Dust arsenic levels also correlated with urinary iAs across
all patients (r = 0.41; p=0.004). Drinking water arsenic was associated with higher
Copyright: © 2025 Author(s).
This is an Open-Access article area deprivation percentiles (r = 0.30, p=0.046) and with households from more
distributed under the terms of the rural areas (p=0.039) but did not differ significantly between cases and controls.
Creative Commons AttributionNon- Conclusion: Our data suggest that indoor dust arsenic, rather than arsenic in drinking
Commercial 4.0 International (CC
BY-NC 4.0), which permits all water, was a likely source of urinary arsenic exposure in this primarily non-smoking
non-commercial use, distribution, population. Relevance for patients: Simple in-home arsenic mitigation strategies,
and reproduction in any medium, such as using high-efficiency particulate air vacuum cleaners and air filtration units,
provided the original work is
properly cited. may help reduce exposure for patients diagnosed with UCC.
Publisher’s Note: AccScience
Publishing remains neutral with Keywords: Bladder cancer; Non-smokers; Household dust; Inorganic arsenic; Drinking
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional water
affiliations.

Volume 11 Issue 3 (2025) 88 doi: 10.36922/jctr.24.00065