A pilot case-cohort study of liver and pancreatic cancers in poultry workers.

Purpose: To test the hypothesis that exposure to poultry oncogenic viruses that widely occurs occupationally in poultry workers and in the general population, may be associated with increased risks of deaths from liver and pancreatic cancers, and to identify new risk factors.

Methods: A pilot case-cohort study of both cancers within a combined cohort of 30,411 highly exposed poultry workers and 16,408 control subjects was conducted, and risk assessed by logistic regression odds ratios (OR) and proportional hazards risk ratios.

Results: New occupational findings were recorded respectively for pancreatic/liver cancers, for slaughtering of poultry (OR = 8.