Bettina Julin
PhD, Postdoc Bettina Julin
IMM Institute of Environmental Medicine- Work:
- +46 8 524 872 56
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Dietary cadmium intake and the risk of hormone-related cancers
My project aims to explore if the oestrogen-mimicking effect of cadmium can influence the risk of hormone-related cancers, such as cancer of the breast, uterus, ovaries and prostate.
Diet is a major source of exposure to the environmental contaminant cadmium and the exposure is often life-long. Since cadmium accumulates in agricultural crops, the major contributors to the cadmium intake are consumption of bread and other cereals, vegetables, root crops and potatoes. Recently, cadmium was proposed as a potent metallo-oestrogen, inducing several well-characterized oestrogenic responses in rats, such as mammary gland development and hyperplasia and hypertrophy of the endometrial lining.
Hormones affect cancer development in humans via stimulation of cell growth. Although present in extremely low amounts in the diet, cadmium may be a potential risk factor for hormone-related cancers. To prospectively assess the risk of hormone-related cancers in relation to cadmium exposure, I utilise two cohorts: the Swedish Mammography Cohort (SMC) and the Cohort of Swedish Men (COSM).
Education
2007 Registered as PhD student in Medical Science, Karolinska Institutet.
2007 MSc in Nutrition at Stockholm University/Karolinska Institutet.
Teaching experience
2011 Course leader for Nutritional Epidemiology within the Bachelor Programme in Nutrition at Karolinska Institutet/Stockholm University.
Lectures within nutrition and/or epidemiology for undergraduate students at Karolinska Institutet.
Publications
Dietary cadmium exposure and risk of epithelial ovarian cancer in a prospective cohort of Swedish women.
Br J Cancer. 2011 Jul 26;105(3):441-4.
Population toxicokinetic modeling of cadmium for health risk assessment.
Environ Health Perspect. 2009 Aug;117(8):1293-301.
Long-term dietary cadmium intake and postmenopausal endometrial cancer incidence: a population-based prospective cohort study.
Cancer Res. 2008 Aug 1;68(15):6435-41.
Dietary cadmium exposure and fracture incidence among men: a population-based prospective cohort study.
J Bone Miner Res. 2011 Jul;26(7):1601-8.
