Occupational exposure to pesticides has been identified as a major trigger of the development of cancer. Pesticides can cause intoxication in the individuals who manipulate them through either inhalation, ingestion, or dermal contact. Given this, we investigated the association between the incidence of cancer and occupational exposure to pesticides through a bibliometric analysis of the studies published between 2011 and 2020, based on 62 papers selected from the Scopus database. The results indicated an exponential increase in the number of studies published over the past decade, with most of the research being conducted in the USA, France, India, and Brazil, although a further 17 nations were also involved in the research on the association between cancer and pesticides. The principal classes of pesticides investigated in relation to their role in intoxication and cancer were insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides. The types of cancer reported most frequently were multiple myeloma, bladder cancer, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, prostate cancer, leukemia, and breast cancer. Despite the known association between pesticides and cancer, studies are still relatively scarce in comparison with the global scale of the use of these xenobiotic substances, which is related to the increasing demand for agricultural products throughout the world.

BACKGROUND, AIM, AND SCOPE: Okadaic acid (OA) and analogues of dinophysistoxin (DTX) are key diarrheic shellfish poisoning (DSP) toxins, which possibly arouse DSP symptoms by consuming the contaminated shellfish. Because of the stable toxicity in high temperature and the long-term carcinogenicity, the outbreaks of DSP related to consumption of bivalve mollusks contaminated by DSP toxins pose a hazard to public health. Therefore, it is worth developing a fast and reliable analytical method for the detection of OA and analogues in shellfish. In this paper, an indirect competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) (icELISA) for detecting OA and DTX-1 in seafood was developed based on monoclonal antibody (McAb). METHODS: The OA was conjugated to human immunoglobulin G (IgG) and bovine serum albumin (BSA) by the active ester method as the immune antigen and the detective antigen. The spleen cells from BALB/c mice immunized with OA-IgG were fused with SP2/0 myeloma cells. A hybridoma cell line, which secreted McAb against OA, was selected by “limiting dilution” cloning. An icELISA was developed based on immobilized conjugate (OA-BSA) competing the McAb with the free OA in seafood sample. RESULTS: A hybridoma cell line, which secreted IgG1 subclass monoclonal antibody (McAb) against OA, was selected. The IC₅₀ of the McAb for OA and dinophytoxin-1 (DTX-1) were 4.40 and 3.89 ng/mL, respectively. Based on the McAb, an indirect competitive ELISA for detection of OA and DTX-1 in seafood was developed. The regression equation was y = 54.713x − 25.879 with a coefficient correlation of R ² = 0.9729. The linear range and the limit of detection were 0.4–12.5 and 0.45 ng/mL, respectively. The average recovery of OA and DTX-1 spiked shellfish was 82.29% with the coefficient of variation of 7.67%. CONCLUSION: The developed icELISA is a fast, sensitive, and convenient assay for detecting of total amount of OA and DTX-1 in seafood.