{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,18]],"date-time":"2026-08-18T06:25:23Z","timestamp":1787034323701,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":39,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,18]],"date-time":"2026-08-18T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1787011200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Public Health"],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Inroduction<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Per and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are persistent environmental contaminants with endocrine-disrupting and carcinogenic potential. However, their bioaccumulation profiles and clinical relevance in human breast cancer remain largely unexplored.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      In this preliminary study we quantified the absolute concentrations of 33 PFAS congeners (ng\/g) in paired tumour and adjacent non-tumorous tissues from 11 breast cancer patients (\n                      <jats:italic>n<\/jats:italic>\n                      = 11) using LC\u2013MS\/MS to evaluate their tissue distribution and clinical correlations.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      The detection rates for six compounds (HFPOTA, PFOA, PFNA, PFUnDA, PFOS, and 6:2Cl-PFESA) were greater than 40%. In paired samples, several congeners showed higher concentrations in tumour than in adjacent non-tumorous tissue; using a two-sided exact Wilcoxon signed-rank test with Hodges\u2013Lehmann effect sizes, tumour enrichment remained significant after Benjamini\u2013Hochberg correction for HFPOTA (\n                      <jats:italic>q<\/jats:italic>\n                      = 0.041), PFNA (\n                      <jats:italic>q<\/jats:italic>\n                      = 0.047) and PFUnDA (\n                      <jats:italic>q<\/jats:italic>\n                      = 0.047). HFPOTA showed by far the highest tissue burden (median 654 ng\/g). Clinically, PFOS concentrations were descriptively higher in Luminal B than in Luminal A tumours and were positively correlated with the proliferation marker Ki-67; a high 6:2Cl-PFESA\u2013PR rank correlation was observed in four samples but was not statistically significant on the raw p-value (p \u2248 0.051) and is exploratory. Bioinformatic analyses indicated that computationally predicted shared target genes of PFAS and breast cancer are enriched in the PPAR signaling pathway, lipid metabolism, and steroid hormone biosynthesis.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Discussion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Collectively, PFAS bioaccumulation was associated with breast cancer clinicopathological characteristics. Because the target genes are predicted rather than experimentally validated and the cohort is small (\n                      <jats:italic>n<\/jats:italic>\n                      = 11), these are exploratory, hypothesis-generating findings that require validation in larger cohorts. This study underscores the need to reassess the biosafety of novel PFAS alternatives and provides new insights into the environmental etiology of breast cancer.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpubh.2026.1879297","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,18]],"date-time":"2026-08-18T05:37:27Z","timestamp":1787031447000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Associations between legacy and emerging per and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) bioaccumulation and clinicopathological characteristics in breast cancer"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Bei","family":"Sun","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Medical Engineering and Translational Medicine, Tianjin University","place":["Tianjin, China"]},{"name":"Department of Pharmacy, The Second Hospital of Tianjin Medical University","place":["Tianjin, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zhanhua","family":"Gao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Tianjin Union Medical Center, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nankai University, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, National Clinical Research Center for Cancer","place":["Tianjin, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xiyue","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Tianjin Union Medical Center, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nankai University, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, National Clinical Research Center for Cancer","place":["Tianjin, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Gexue","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Tianjin Union Medical Center, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nankai University, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, National Clinical Research Center for Cancer","place":["Tianjin, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Shoujun","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Tianjin Union Medical Center, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nankai University, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, National Clinical Research Center for Cancer","place":["Tianjin, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jinpu","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Tianjin Union Medical Center, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nankai University, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, National Clinical Research Center for Cancer","place":["Tianjin, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Junyi","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Tianjin Union Medical Center, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nankai University, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, National Clinical Research Center for Cancer","place":["Tianjin, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Haiyang","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Tianjin Union Medical Center, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nankai University, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, National Clinical Research Center for Cancer","place":["Tianjin, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mingqing","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Tianjin Union Medical Center, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nankai University, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, National Clinical Research Center for Cancer","place":["Tianjin, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Chong","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Tianjin Union Medical Center, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nankai University, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, National Clinical Research Center for Cancer","place":["Tianjin, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Feng","family":"He","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Medical Engineering and Translational Medicine, Tianjin University","place":["Tianjin, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Dongzhi","family":"Hu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Tianjin Union Medical Center, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nankai University, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, National Clinical Research Center for Cancer","place":["Tianjin, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jie","family":"Hao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Tianjin Union Medical Center, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nankai University, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, National Clinical Research Center for Cancer","place":["Tianjin, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,18]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"125808","DOI":"10.1016\/j.biortech.2021.125808","article-title":"Per\/polyfluoroalkyl substances production, applications and environmental impacts","volume":"341","author":"Dhore","year":"2021","journal-title":"Bioresour Technol"},{"key":"ref2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"eabg9065","DOI":"10.1126\/science.abg9065","article-title":"Per and polyfluoroalkyl substances in the environment","volume":"375","author":"Evich","year":"2022","journal-title":"Science"},{"key":"ref3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"126223","DOI":"10.1016\/j.biortech.2021.126223","article-title":"Biodegradation of per and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS): a 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