June 5, 2023
Key points:
- New research links Agent Orange to an increased risk of blood cancers in veterans.
- Specifically, exposure could result in myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs), which are acquired stem cell disorders that can lead to overproduction of mature blood cells.
- Agent Orange has previously been associated with sarcomas and B-cell lymphomas, but not MPNs or leukemias.
Research conducted using a database of veterans exposed to Agent Orange found an association for an increased risk of developing myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs), which are acquired stem cell disorders that can lead to overproduction of mature blood cells complicated by an increased risk of blood clots in arteries and veins. When MPNs progress, they can become deadly leukemias.
The Agent Orange chemical has previously been associated with sarcomas and B-cell lymphomas, but not MPNs or leukemias.
For this study, researchers utilized the Veterans Affairs Informatics and Computing Infrastructure (VINCI) database and examined records of 93,269 MPN patients among 12,352,664 veterans over 17 years. The team used veterans from the state of Illinois as a control population since Illinois is highly representative of the United States, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
According to the findings, the odds of Agent Orange exposure among MPNs are 1.63 times greater than the odds of exposure among controls. When comparing people with MPNs vs. age-, gender-, and race-matched controls, there was more clotting in the arteries (37% vs. 18.5%), more clotting in the veins (14.8% vs. 5.2%) and more bleeding events (39.1% vs. 13.5%), respectively.
Additionally, people with MPNs had more hypertension (75.5% vs. 43.2%), diabetes (31.2% vs. 19%), and more heart failure (26.1% vs. 11%) than age-, gender, and race-matched controls, respectively.
The odds of Agent Orange exposure among matched controls with arterial clots are 1.38 times greater than the odds of exposure among controls without arterial clots. The odds of Agent Orange exposure among MPNs with arterial clots are 1.49 times greater than the odds of exposure among MPNs without arterial clots.
Because the findings only point to possible associations and not causes, lead author Andrew Tiu said the researchers will need to dive more deeply into the biology of the disease. Specifically, they want to look at JAK2 mutations, which are one of the three driver mutations of MPNs that can cause uncontrolled proliferation of stem cells. JAK2 has also been associated with an increased risk of clotting.
“There are several associations between Agent Orange and health disorders that are not well understood and we hope our work helps uncover a few of these,” said Tiu.