As kinds of
endocrine disruptors,
organophosphate esters (OPEs) pollution in the environment had received increasing attention recently. Food and water intake were two important exposure pathways for OPEs. However, the studies about the potential association between OPEs and
gastrointestinal cancer were limited. This study investigated the possible association between OPEs and
gastrointestinal cancer. All
cancer patients were diagnosed with
gastrointestinal cancer from a Grade 3 A hospital in Wuhan, China, while the control group was non-
cancer healthy persons. The results showed that 6 OPEs were found in the control samples, while 8 in the samples from patients with
gastrointestinal cancer. The detection frequencies of OPEs in
gastrointestinal cancer patients were significantly higher than those in the control group (p < 0.05 or p < 0.01), except for
triethyl phosphate (
TEP) and tris (methylphenyl)
phosphate (TMPP) in the
gastric cancer group. The concentrations of OPEs in the control group were significantly lower than those in the
gastric cancer group and
colorectal cancer group (p < 0.01). In the control group and
gastrointestinal cancer group,
TEP was the dominant
pollutant. Correlation analysis found that concentrations of
TEP, tris(2-chloroisopropyl)
phosphate (TCIPP),
triphenyl phosphate (TPHP), TMPP, tris(2-ethylhexyl)
phosphate (TEHP), and 2-ethylhexyl
diphenyl phosphate (EHDPP) were associated with
gastric cancer (p < 0.01), and concentrations of
TEP, TCIPP, TPHP, TMPP and TEHP were associated with
colorectal cancer (p < 0.01). A cluster analysis divided the 34 patients with
gastric cancer and 40 patients with
colorectal cancer in four groups. The results showed that the elderly male patients with
gastric cancer were more sensitive to the exposure of EHDPP, while the
TEP exposure was more sensitive to the relatively young
gastrointestinal cancer patients. These findings indicated that OPEs might play a role in developing
gastrointestinal cancer.