1 WHO (World Health Organization). Global Health Estimates 2020: Deaths by Cause, Age, Sex, by Country and by Region, 2000‐2019. [accessed 11-12-2020].
2 GLOBOCAN 2020. Available from https://gco.iarc.fr/today/data/factsheets/populations/900-world-fact-sheets.pdf [accessed-11-12-2020].
3 IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer) 2020: https://www.uicc.org/news/globocan-2020-new-global-cancer-data. [accessed- 11- 12-2020].
4 Sung H, Ferlay J, Siegel RL, et al. Global cancer statistics 2020: GLOBOCAN estimates of incidence and mortality worldwide for 36 cancers in 185 countries. CA: Cancer J Clin 2021; 10.3322/caac.21660.
5 Winters S, Martin C, Murphy D, Shokar NK. Breast cancer epidemiology, prevention, and screening. Prog Mol Biol Transl Sci 2017; 151: 1–32.
6 Yamauchi H, Takei J. Management of hereditary breast and ovarian cancer. Int J Clin Oncol 2018; 23: 45–51.
7 Malvia S, Bagadi SA, Dubey US, Saxena S. Epidemiology of breast cancer in Indian women. Asia Pac J Clin Oncol 2017; 13: 289–95.
8 Alteri R, Bertaut T, Brinton LA, et al. Breast cancer facts and figures: 2015–2016. Atlanta: American Cancer Society. 2015.
9 Hollingsworth AB, Nall S, Dill D. The evolution of breast cancer risk assessment. J Okla State Med Assoc 2002; 95: 639–44.
10 Danforth Jr DN. Genomic changes in normal breast tissue in women at normal risk or at high risk for breast cancer. Breast Cancer (Auckl) 2016; 10: 109–46.
11 Wild CP, Stewart BW. World cancer report 2014. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization; 2014.
12 Chopra B, Kaur V, Singh K, Verma M, Singh S, Singh A. Age shift: Breast cancer is occurring in younger age groups-Is it true?. Clin Cancer Investig J 2014; 3: 526.
13 Thangjam S, Laishram RS, Debnath K. Breast carcinoma in young females below the age of 40 years: A histopathological perspective. South Asian J Cancer 2014; 3: 97–100.
14 Richards LA, Kumar A, Shankar P, Gaurav A, Ghosh A, Polya, DA. Distribution and Geochemical Controls of Arsenic and Uranium in Groundwater-Derived Drinking Water in Bihar, India. Int J Environ Res Public Health 2020; 17: 2500.
15 Kumar M, Rahman MM, Ramanathan AL, Naidu R. Arsenic and other elements in drinking water and dietary components from the middle Gangetic plain of Bihar, India: Health risk index. Sci Total Environ 2016a; 539: 125–134.
16 Kumar A, Rahman MS, Iqubal MA, et al. Ground Water Arsenic Contamination: A Local Survey in India. Int J Prev Med 2016b; 7, 100.
17 Kumar P, Kumar M, Ramanathan AL, Tsujimura M. Tracing the factors responsible for arsenic enrichment in groundwater of the middle Gangetic Plain, India: a source identification perspective. Environ Geochem Health 2010; 32: 129–146.
18 Saha D, Sahu S. A decade of investigations on groundwater arsenic contamination in Middle Ganga Plain, India. Environ Geochem Health. 2016; 38: 315–337.
19 Kumar A, Rahman MS, Kumar R, et al. Arsenic contamination in groundwater causing impaired memory and intelligence in school children of Simri village of Buxar district of Bihar. J Ment Health Hum Behav 2019; 24: 132–138.
20 Kumar A, Ali M, Kumar R, et al. High arsenic concentration in blood samples of people of village GyaspurMahaji, Patna, Bihar drinking arsenic-contaminated water. Springer Nature J Exposure Health 2020; 12: 131–140.
21 Khanjani N, Jafarnejad AB, Tavakkoli L. Arsenic and breast cancer: a systematic review of epidemiologic studies. Rev Environ Health 2017; 32: 267–77.
22 Yu HS, Liao WT, Chai CY. Arsenic carcinogenesis in the skin. J Biomed Sci 2006; 13: 657–666.
23 Wong SS, Tan KC, Goh CL. Cutaneous manifestations of chronic arsenicism: Review of seventeen cases. J Am Acad Dermatol 1998; 38: 179–185.
24 Ghosh SK, Bandyopadhyay D, Bandyopadhyay SK, Debbarma, K. Cutaneous malignant and premalignant conditions caused by chronic arsenicosis from contaminated ground water consumption: A profile of patients from eastern India. Skinmed 2013; 11: 211–216.
25 Cornelis R, Heinzow B, Herber RF, et al. Sample collection guidelines for trace elements in blood and urine (technical report). Pure Appl Chem 1995; 67: 1575–1608.
26 Kumar A, Ali M, Kumar R, et al. Arsenic exposure in Indo Gangetic plains of Bihar causing increased cancer risk. Sci Rep 2021; 11:1–6.
27 Sanz E, Muñoz-Olivas R, Cámara C, Sengupta MK, Ahamed, S. Arsenic speciation in rice, straw, soil, hair and nails samples from the arsenic-affected areas of Middle and Lower Ganga plain. J Environ Sci Health A Toxicol Hazard Subst Environ Eng 2007; 42: 1695–1705.
28 Michel-Ramirez G, Recio-Vega R, Lantz RC, et al. Assessment of YAP gene polymorphisms and arsenic interaction in Mexican women with breast cancer. J Appl Toxicol 2020; 40: 342–351.
29 Soh MA, Garrett SH, Somji S, et al. Arsenic, cadmium and neuron specific enolase (ENO2, γ-enolase) expression in breast cancer. Cancer Cell Int 2011; 11: 41.
30 López-Carrillo L, Hernández-Ramírez RU, Gandolfi AJ, Ornelas-Aguirre JM, Torres-Sánchez L, Cebrian ME. Arsenic methylation capacity is associated with breast cancer in northern Mexico. Toxicol Appl Pharmacol 2014; 280: 53–59.
31 Gamboa-Loira B, Cebrian ME, Salinas-Rodriguez A, et al. Genetic susceptibility to breast cancer risk associated with inorganic arsenic exposure. Environ Toxicol Pharmacol 2017; 56: 106–13.
32 Kuo CC, Moon KA, Wang SL, Silbergeld E, Navas-Acien A. The Association of Arsenic Metabolism with Cancer, Cardiovascular Disease, and Diabetes: A Systematic Review of the Epidemiological Evidence. Environ Health Perspect 2017; 125: 087001.
33 Kortenkamp A. Are cadmium and other heavy metal compounds acting as endocrine disrupters?. Met Ions Life Sci 2011; 8: 305-17.
34 Davey JC, Bodwell JE, Gosse JA, et al. Arsenic as an endocrine disruptor: effects of arsenic on estrogen receptor-mediated gene expression in vivo and in cell culture. Toxicol Sci 2007; 98: 75–86.
35 Marciniak W, Derkacz R, Muszyńska M, et al. Blood arsenic levels and the risk of familial breast cancer in Poland. Int J Cancer 2020; 146: 2721–27.
36 Chakraborti D, Rahman MM, Ahamed S, Dutta RN, Pati S, Mukherjee SC. Arsenic groundwater contamination and its health effects in Patna district (capital of Bihar) in the middle Ganga plain, India. Chemosphere 2016; 152: 520–9.
37 Cottingham KL, Karimi R, Gruber JF, et al. Diet and toenail arsenic concentrations in a New Hampshire population with arsenic-containing water. Nutr J 2013; 12: 149.
38 Dummer TJ, Yu ZM, Nauta L, Murimboh JD, Parker L. Geostatistical modelling of arsenic in drinking water wells and related toenail arsenic concentrations across Nova Scotia, Canada. Sci Total Environ 2015; 505: 1248–58.
39 Yu ZM, Dummer TJ, Adams A, Murimboh JD, Parker L. Relationship between drinking water and toenail arsenic concentrations among a cohort of Nova Scotians. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 2014; 24: 135–44.
40 Middleton DR, Watts MJ, Hamilton EM, et al. Prolonged exposure to arsenic in UK private water supplies: toenail, hair and drinking water concentrations. Environ Sci Process Impacts 2016; 18: 562–74.
41 Chakraborti D, Rahman MM, Chatterjee A, et al. Fate of over 480 million inhabitants living in arsenic and fluoride endemic Indian districts: Magnitude, health, socio-economic effects and mitigation approaches. J Trace Elem Med Biol 2016; 38: 33–45.
42 Rahman MS, Kumar A, Kumar R, Ali M, Ghosh AK, Singh SK. Comparative Quantification Study of Arsenic in the Groundwater and Biological Samples of Simri Village of Buxar District, Bihar, India. Indian J Occup Environ Med 2019; 23: 126-132.
43 Cuzick J. Preventive therapy for cancer. Lancet Oncol 2017;18: e472–e482.
44 Palma-Lara P I, Martínez-Castillo M, Quintana-Pérez JC, et al. Arsenic exposure: A public health problem leading to several cancers. Regul Toxicol Pharmacol 2020; 110: 104539.
45 Pullella J, Kotsopoulos K, J. Arsenic Exposure and Breast Cancer Risk: A Re-Evaluation of the Literature. Nutrients 2020; 12: 3305.
46 Danes JM, de Abreu ALP, Kerketta R, et al. Inorganic arsenic promotes luminal to basal transition and metastasis of breast cancer. FASEB J 2020; 34: 16034–48.
47 Nielsen FC, van Overeem Hansen T, Sørensen CS. Hereditary breast and ovarian cancer: new genes in confined pathways. Nat Rev Cancer 2016; 16: 599–612.
48 Easton DF, Pharoah PD, Antoniou AC, et al. Gene-panel sequencing and the prediction of breast-cancer risk. N Engl J Med 2015; 372: 2243–57.
49 Selmin OI, Donovan MG, Skovan B, Paine-Murieta GD, Romagnolo DF. Arsenic induced BRCA1 CpG promoter methylation is associated with the downregulation of ERα and resistance to tamoxifen in MCF7 breast cancer cells and mouse mammary tumor xenografts. Int J Oncol 2019; 54: 869–78.
50 Foster H, Kennedy G, Maisonneuve P, et al. A case-control study of toenail selenium, mercury, arsenic and cadmium and cancer of the breast, colon and prostate in Montreal. Trends Cancer Res 2008; 4: 15–8.
51 Pineda-Belmontes CP, Hernández-Ramírez RU, Hernández-Alcaraz C, et al. Genetic polymorphisms of PPAR gamma, arsenic methylation capacity and breast cancer risk in Mexican women. Salud Publica Mex 2016; 58: 220–7.
52 Wadhwa SK, Kazi TG, Afridi HI, Talpur FN, Naeemullah. Interaction between carcinogenic and anti-carcinogenic trace elements in the scalp hair samples of different types of Pakistani female cancer patients. Clin Chim Acta 2015; 439: 178–84.
53 Lopez-Carrillo L, Hernandez-Ramirez RU, Gandolfi AJ, et al. Arsenic methylation capacity is associated with breast cancer in northern Mexico. Toxicol Appl Pharmacol 2014; 280: 53–9.
54 Blaurock-Busch E, Busch YM, Friedle A, et al. Comparing the metal concentration in the hair of cancer patients and healthy people living in the Malwa region of Punjab, India. Clin Med Insights Oncol 2014; 8: 1–13.
55 Benderli Cihan Y, Sozen S, Ozturk Yildirim S. Trace elements and heavy metals in hair of stage III breast cancer patients. Biol Trace Elem Res 2011; 144: 360–79.
56 Garland M, Morris JS, Colditz GA, et al. Toenail trace element levels and breast cancer: a prospective study. Am J Epidemiol 1996; 144: 653–60.
57 Alatise OI, Schrauzer GN. Lead exposure: a contributing cause of the current breast cancer epidemic in Nigerian women. Biol Trace Elem Res 2010; 136: 127–39.
58 Gamboa-Loira B, Cebrian ME, Salinas-Rodriguez A, et al. Genetic susceptibility to breast cancer risk associated with inorganic arsenic exposure. Environ Toxicol Pharmacol 2017; 56: 106–13.
59 Joo NS, Kim SM, Jung YS, et al. Hair iron and other minerals’ level in breast cancer patients. Biol Trace Elem Res 2009; 129: 28–35.
60 Goyal A, Sahu RK, Kumar M, et al. p16 promoter methylation, expression, and its association with estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 subtype of breast carcinoma. J Can Res Ther 2019; 15: 1147–54.
61 Martinez VD, Vucic EA, Becker-Santos DD, Gil L, Lam WL. Arsenic exposure and the induction of human cancers. J Toxicol 2011; 2011: 431287.
62 Zhao CQ, Young MR, Diwan BA, Coogan TP, Waalkes MP. Association of arsenic-induced malignant transformation with DNA hypomethylation and aberrant gene expression. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 1997; 94: 10907–12.
63 Mass MJ, Wang L. Arsenic alters cytosine methylation patterns of the promoter of the tumor suppressor gene p53 in human lung cells: a model for a mechanism of carcinogenesis. Mutat Res 1997; 386: 263–77.
64 Cui X, Wakai T, Shirai Y, Hatakeyama K, Hirano S. Chronic oral exposure to inorganic arsenate interferes with methylation status of p16INK4a and RASSF1A and induces lung cancer in A/J mice. Toxicol Sci 2006; 91: 372–81.
65 Marsit CJ, Karagas MR, Schned A, Kelsey KT. Carcinogen exposure and epigenetic silencing in bladder cancer. Ann N Y Acad Sci 2006; 1076: 810–21.
66 Chanda S, Dasgupta UB, Guhamazumder D, et al. DNA hypermethylation of promoter of gene p53 and p16 in arsenic-exposed people with and without malignancy. Toxicol Sci 2006; 89: 431–37.
67 Ren X, McHale CM, Skibola CF, Smith AH, Smith MT, Zhang L. An emerging role for epigenetic dysregulation in arsenic toxicity and carcinogenesis. Environ Health Perspect 2011; 119: 11–19.
68 Reichard JF, Puga A. Effects of arsenic exposure on DNA methylation and epigenetic gene regulation. Epigenomics 2010; 2: 87–104, 2010.
69 Zimta AA, Schitcu V, Gurzau E, et al. Biological and molecular modifications induced by cadmium and arsenic during breast and prostate cancer development. Environ Res 2019; 178: 108700.
70 Dantzig PI. Breast cancer, dermatofibromas and arsenic. Indian J Dermatol 2009; 54: 23–25.
71 Chakraborti D, Singh SK, Rahman MM, Dutta RN, Mukherjee SC, Pati S, Kar PB. Groundwater Arsenic Contamination in the Ganga River Basin: A Future Health Danger. Int J Environ Res Public Health 2018; 15: 180.
72 Kumar A, Kumar R, Rahman M S, et al. Assessment of arsenic exposure in the population of Sabalpur village of Saran District of Bihar with mitigation approach. Environmental science and pollution research international, 2021; 10.1007/s11356-021-13521-5. Advance online publication.
73 Kumar A, Rahman M.S., Ali M, et al. Assessment of arsenic exposure and its mitigation intervention in severely exposed population of Buxar district of Bihar, India. Toxicol. Environ. Health Sci. 2021, 10.1007/s13530-021-00086-6. Advance online publication.