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Robin Mesnage

My research

Chemical exposure that interferes within the body’s hormone systems has been linked to breast cancer. Large numbers of pollutants can have oestrogen hormone-like activities and can stimulate breast cancer cell growth. Bisphenols are used in the manufacture of plastic bottles, resins and the plastic lining of cans, from which they leach into food and drink. Bisphenol A (BPA) is the prototypical member of this class of plastics components, which is now known to mimic the effects of oestrogen. Due to public concerns, industry has been replacing BPA with other bisphenol compounds to produce so called “BPA-free” products.

Estrogenic effects of bisphenol A alternatives

We investigated estrogenic effects of bisphenol A (BPA) variants in 3 human breast cancer cell lines (Mesnage et al., 2017b). We found that BPA alternatives are not necessarily less estrogenic than BPA in human breast cancer cells. BPAF, BPB, and BPZ were more estrogenic than BPA. This study was published in the official journal of the Society of toxicology Toxicological Sciences, and highlighted by the Editor-in-Chief of the cover of journal. The EPA issued a press release to ‘highlight the need for testing of replacement chemicals prior to their introduction into commerce to demonstrate that they are safer than the chemical being replaced.’ Our study has subsequently be used as the basis of a new bill by the State of New York.

More recently, Breast Cancer UK has awarded a grant of £100,000 to Dr Michael Antoniou and colleagues Dr Robin Mesnage and Dr Ana Rodriguez-Mateos, King’s College London, to fund a PhD studentship, which will undertake biomonitoring of UK residents to identify levels of bisphenols and evaluate the potential breast cancer initiating and growth promoting activity of bisphenol mixtures.