No Excess Cancer Risk among Veterinarians in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden after the 1980s

The cancer profile of veterinarians has received little research attention, despite the profession potentially being exposed to a wide range of known and suspected carcinogens. In this large-scale cohort study, we assessed cancer incidence in veterinarians in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, across more than 40 years (1961–2005). The cohort comprised 4708 veterinarians and 119,503 person-years at follow-up. The overall cancer incidence in veterinarians was close to the incidence in the total population in all countries and in all age groups. In male veterinarians, the standardized incidence ratios (SIR) in 1961–1990 were elevated for colon cancer (1.86, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.39–2.44), prostate cancer (1.35, 95% CI 1.07–1.67), and especially skin melanoma (3.62, 95% CI 2.78–2.84), while there was no longer any statistically significant excess in the more recent follow-up period. Decreased SIRs were observed for lip cancer (0.11, 95% CI 0.00–0.62), laryngeal cancer (0.38, 95% CI 0.12–0.89), lung cancer (0.59, 95% CI 0.47–0.74), and stomach cancer (0.58, 95% CI 0.38–0.86), without a marked change in SIR over time. Non-significant excesses among male veterinarians were also observed in Hodgkin lymphoma (1961–1990 only), and leukaemia. This multi-country study indicates that there was an elevated incidence of several cancer types among...