Breast cancer in the Baixada Santista region and its relationship to contaminated areas.

The aim of this study was to analyze the temporal distribution of breast cancer and its relationship with contaminated areas in the Baixada Santista metropolitan region, São Paulo. It is an ecological study on the distribution of breast cancer in the municipalities of the region as well as in regions exposed to environmental contaminants. The population consisted of women aged 20 years and over, totaling 3233 cases in the 12 years of the study. First, we calculated the total annual breast cancer coefficients by municipality, then we standardized by age and the indicator of contamination density by municipality. We then performed cartographic sequencing that revealed the evolution of outcome and exposure. The results showed that the municipality of Santos presented a higher coefficient of the disease. Pearson's correlation was positive with r = 0.7 at a significance level of p = 0.036. Spatially, the most contaminated areas presented higher breast cancer coefficients, except for the municipality of Peruíbe, which despite its low environmental contamination index, presented a high disease coefficient. This study confirmed the hypothesis that environmental contamination affects breast cancer distribution, and the temporal trend shows an increase in the disease in eight of the nine municipalities in the region.