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Dioxin and Specific Cancers

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Dioxin, Agent Orange
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Abstract

Swedish scientists have reported associations between dioxin exposure and several cancers, including malignant lymphomas,1 nasal cancers,2 and stomach cancers.3 However, none of these associations has attracted so much attention as the Swedish reports4 mentioned earlier that dioxin exposure of forestry workers caused unexpectedly high numbers of a group of relatively rare tumors, soft tissue sarcomas.* Since these reports were published, nearly all investigations of possible associations between dioxin and cancer have emphasized the possible link between the chemical and soft tissue sarcomas. Little is known about these tumors or about their causes, which may in part explain why the press and some scientists have drawn attention to the possible link. Since dioxin remains a mystery in many ways, one may not need a vivid imagination to see why it is often invoked to explain an even more mysterious form of cancer. In any case, the suggested association affords scientists the opportunity to learn more about these tumors as well as dioxin’s carcinogenicity.

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References

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© 1986 Michael Gough

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Gough, M. (1986). Dioxin and Specific Cancers. In: Dioxin, Agent Orange. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-6130-3_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-6130-3_13

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-306-42247-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-6130-3

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