Soft-tissue sarcomas and exposure to chemical substances: a case-referent study.

In 1977 several patients were seen with soft-tissue sarcomas and previous exposure to phenoxy acids. This clinical observation resulted in a cases-referent (case-control) study being undertaken which showed that exposure to phenoxy acids or chlorophenols, which are chemically related, gave a roughly six-fold increase in the risk for this type of tumour. A further case-referent study of soft-tissue sarcomas has now been performed to confirm these earlier findings and also to obtain further information on the effects of different phenoxy acids. This new investigation gave an increase of the same magnitude in the risk for soft-tissue sarcomas after exposure to phenoxy acids or chlorophenols, but this risk related also to exposure to phenoxy acids free from impurities, such as polychlorinated dibenzodioxins and dibenzofurans.