Coradduzza Donatella, Congiargiu Antonella, Azara Emanuela, Mammani Ismaeil Mohammed Abulkahar, De Miglio Maria Rosaria, Zinellu Angelo, Carru Ciriaco, Medici Serenella
Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Sassari, Viale San Pietro 43/B, 07100, Sassari, Italy.
Institute of Biomolecular Chemistry, National Research Council, Sassari, Italy.
Biometals. 2024 Aug;37(4):803-817. doi: 10.1007/s10534-024-00583-4. Epub 2024 Feb 12.
The majority of the so-called heavy metals are suspected to be involved in a number of pathologies and play a role in human carcinogenesis. Some of them (i.e. arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), lead (Pb), mercury (Hg) and nickel (Ni)) have been defined as carcinogens, increasing the susceptibility of tumor development and progression in humans. Moreover, Ni, Cr, Cd, Hg, and Pb together with zinc (Zn) and iron (Fe), may be capable of stimulating the progression of breast cancer and reducing a patient's sensitivity to treatment through alterations to DNA methylation. In patients with gastric cancers, levels of various heavy metals are augmented and hypothesized to amplify the expression of the human epidermal growth factor receptor type 2 gene. Cd may increase the risk of lung cancer development and have a negative impact on the overall survival of lung cancer patients. To investigate the relation between heavy metals in biological samples and risk, occurrence and survival cancer individuals, a comprehensive review work was performed, with a focus on breast, lung, prostate and gastric cancers. An extensive search strategy was devised to ensure relevant literature could be identified, with the PECO framework being adopted to facilitate this and identify key search terms. As evidenced in this review, there is substantial data to support the hypothesis that heavy metals influence tumor development and progression. Unluckily the number of papers dealing with the determination of metals directly in samples from cancer tissues is still rather limited, so we decided to expand the scope of this review also to analyses carried out on other biological samples, as urine, plasma, hair, nail, etc. The studies reviewed showed that several limitations and current knowledge gaps are present in the literature that require further investigation to improve our comprehension of the impact of different heavy metals on tumorigenesis.
大多数所谓的重金属被怀疑与多种病理状况有关，并在人类致癌过程中发挥作用。其中一些（如砷（As）、镉（Cd）、铬（Cr）、铅（Pb）、汞（Hg）和镍（Ni））已被定义为致癌物，会增加人类肿瘤发生和发展的易感性。此外，镍、铬、镉、汞、铅与锌（Zn）和铁（Fe）一起，可能能够通过改变DNA甲基化来刺激乳腺癌的进展并降低患者对治疗的敏感性。在胃癌患者中，各种重金属水平升高，并推测会放大人类表皮生长因子受体2型基因的表达。镉可能会增加肺癌发生的风险，并对肺癌患者的总生存期产生负面影响。为了研究生物样本中的重金属与癌症个体的风险、发生和生存之间的关系，我们进行了一项全面的综述工作，重点关注乳腺癌、肺癌、前列腺癌和胃癌。我们设计了广泛的检索策略，以确保能够识别相关文献，并采用PECO框架来促进这一过程并确定关键检索词。正如本综述所证明的，有大量数据支持重金属影响肿瘤发生和发展这一假说。不幸的是，直接处理癌症组织样本中金属测定的论文数量仍然相当有限，因此我们决定将本综述的范围扩大到对其他生物样本（如尿液、血浆、头发、指甲等）进行的分析。所综述的研究表明，文献中存在一些局限性和当前的知识空白，需要进一步研究以提高我们对不同重金属对肿瘤发生影响的理解。
