SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1593300
PFOA Biomonitoring and Kidney Cancer Risk: A Meta-Analysis of Serum Levels
Provisionally accepted
- 1University of Turin, Turin, Piedmont, Italy
- 2ASPIDIA srl, Milano, Italy
- 3Institute of Biomedical Technologies, Department of Biomedical Sciences, National Research Council (CNR), Segrate, Lombardy, Italy
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The association between perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) exposure and kidney cancer risk in humans remains inconclusive. This meta-analysis provides a novel assessment by focusing on serum PFOA levels, a direct biomarker of internal exposure, rather than indirect measures. A systematic search of PubMed and Web of Science identified relevant studies. Random-effects models were used to pool effect estimates for both continuous serum PFOA levels and categorical comparisons of the highest versus lowest exposure groups. Three studies, including 1,011 cases and 2,251 controls, were analyzed. PFOA levels as a continuous variable yielded a non-significant meta-relative risk (mRR) of 0.59 (95% CI: 0.06-5.89). Comparing the highest to lowest exposure groups, the mRR was 0.98 (95% CI: 0.64-1.50), also not significant.Heterogeneity was observed in the continuous exposure analysis. In sex-stratified analyses (two studies), no significant associations were found. These findings suggest that any excess kidney cancer risk associated with PFOA exposure is likely small. While mechanistic evidence indicates potential kidney toxicity, data remain inconclusive. Further research is needed to clarify PFOA's renal carcinogenicity.
Keywords: biomonitoring, Kidney, PFAS, pfoa, renal cancer
Received: 15 Mar 2025; Accepted: 08 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Spyrakis, Tiburtini, Bruno, Dragani and Colombo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Tommaso A. Dragani, ASPIDIA srl, Milano, Italy
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