“Environmental Chemical Burden in Differentiated Thyroid Cancer”

We are excited to share a recently published study supported by the HERCULES Untargeted Analysis Facility.

HERCULES supports important environmental health research that provides answers for Georgia communities. In particular, the expertise of the untargeted analysis facility provides important clues to the etiology of the rising rates of thyroid cancer. Recently, researchers from the Department of Surgery, the Department of Medicine, and Winship Cancer Institute published a study in Environment International that utilized the HERCULES untargeted analysis facility to identify nearly 500 environmental chemicals directly within human thyroid tumors from patients treated at Emory Healthcare. These included many insecticides, herbicides, plasticizers, and industrial chemicals. The study also showed that two industrial chemicals that are known carcinogens were present at higher concentrations in thyroid tumors compared to healthy thyroid tissue. These findings carry critical public health implications for Georgia, where thyroid cancer incidence across six northeast counties (Union, Lumpkin, Hall, White, Habersham, and Rabun) has reached nearly double the national average in recent decades. While further studies are needed to trace specific population-level exposures, this research places Emory at the forefront of uncovering how environmental toxicants influence endocrine carcinogenesis, providing biological insights both locally for Georgia communities and broadly for the field of environmental oncology.

Article link:  https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412026004939?via%3Dihub

Video for background on thyroid cancer rates in NE Georgia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59fzqrdNmqk