Association between occupational exposure and cancer in developing countries: a systematic review

Abstract

Objective: This systematic review aims to identify, evaluate, and synthesize existing evidence about the association between occupational exposure and cancer in developing countries, to conduct risk of bias assessment (RBA), and to identify knowledge gaps to guide future research. Material and Methods: A systematic review is currently conducted across three major databases—MEDLINE (via PubMed), EBSCO, and DynaMed—including studies published between 1990 and 2025. The search strategy was developed in accordance with the PICOs framework, using a combination of search terms, Medical Subject Headings (MeSH), and Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) to identify relevant studies. The ongoing first phase of this systematic review (MEDLINE database) initially identified a total of 1,759 records which were screened based on title and abstract. For the resulting 41 records, the full-text articles were assessed for eligibility. Following the exclusion criteria, four articles without an existing abstract and 28 review articles were removed. In accordance with the inclusion criteria, only original research articles were considered, resulting in 9 full-text articles being included for qualitative synthesis. Screening of EBSCO and DynaMed databases will be conducted in the next phase of the review. RBA was based on the criteria proposed by Shamliyana et al. Results: Preliminary data showed that the most frequently analysed occupational carcinogens in developing countries were: asbestos, silica dust, pesticides, arsenic, and particulate matters. Mostly investigated cancer sites were: lung cancer, melanoma, leukaemia, and colo-rectal cancer. The RBA showed external and internal validity issues for most of the studies. Conclusion: There is a clear need to improve evidence synthesis on occupational exposure and cancer in developing countries, where the burden could be greater but research is limited. Acknowledgements: The authors declare no funding or conflicts of interest.