Chemical in plastic may interfere with chemotherapy

A chemical that recent studies have shown may cause cancer is now back in the news for possibly interfering with the effectiveness of chemotherapy.

This one-two punch is associated with Bisphenol A, a ubiquitous chemical found in products ranging from baby bottles to food cans.

The New York Times writes about the recent findings, which were originally published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. Funding for this study came from the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense and the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

Bisphenol A (BPA) is found in many re-usable water and baby bottles, the lining of food cans and soft drink cans. BPA has recently been linked to a host of potential health problems. The chemical mimics estrogen in the body and may lead to an early onset of puberty. BPA has also recently been linked to increased risk of heart disease and diabetes.

In the latest research, a team from the University of Cincinnati studied human breast cancer cells, subjecting them to low levels of BPA similar to those found in the blood of adults. They found that BPA acts on cancer cells similar to the way estrogen does — by inducing proteins that protect the cells from chemotherapy agents.

“It’s actually acting by protecting existing cancer cells from dying in response to anti-cancer drugs, making chemotherapy significantly less effective,” said Nira Ben-Jonathan, a professor of cancer and cell biology who has studied BPA for more than 10 years.

The research may help explain why chemotherapy appears to be less effective in some patients.

“These data,” study authors write, “provide considerable support to the accumulating evidence that BPA is hazardous to human health.”

BPA is not only common in consumer products, it’s also commonly found in our bodies. A study conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2003-2004 found BPA in the urine of 93 percent of the study’s 2,500 participants.