Exploring the relationships between exposure levels of bisphenols and phthalates and prostate cancer occurrence

Abstract

We established an ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) method for simultaneously analyzing the metabolites of bisphenols and phthalates in urine to identify the associations between these exposure levels and prostate cancer (PCa) based on a case–control study. After purifying urine samples with SPE, 18 metabolites were separated on a C₁₈ column, and MS detection was performed. The UPLC-MS/MS method has been proven effective at evaluating bisphenol and phthalate exposure (0.020–0.20 μg/L of the limits of detection, 71.8 %∼119.4 % of recoveries, 0.4 %∼8.2 % of precision). Logistic regression explored the association between exposure level and PCa in 187 PCa cases and 151 controls. The detection rates of bisphenol A (BPA) and most phthalate metabolites were 100 % ranging from 0.06–46.74 and 0.12–899.92 μg/g creatinine, respectively, while the detection rates of other bisphenols and mono-benzyl phthalate (MBzP) are low, ranging from 0 % to 21.85 %. Correlation analysis of the metabolite levels indicated that the exposure sources of BPA, di-ethyl phthalate (DEP), and di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) were different, and that the exposure sources of di-n-butyl phthalate (DnBP) and di-isobutyl phthalate (DiBP) may differ between two groups. Logistic regression analysis revealed that BPA (OR_{<0.45 vs ≥1.43} =10.02₎ and DEHP exposure (OR_{<21.75 vs ≥45.42} =48.26) increased the risk of PCa.