Environment and Breast Cancer: Science Review


Evidence From Humans
 
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Genetic polymorphisms in catechol-O-methyltransferase, menopausal status, and breast cancer risk
Thompson, P. A., Shields, P. G., Freudenheim, J. L., Stone, A., Vena, J. E., Marshall, J. R., Graham, S., Laughlin, R., Nemoto, T., Kadlubar, F. F., Ambrosone, C. B. Cancer Research. 1998. 58:10, 2107-10.
Topic area
Body size - Genetic variability
Study design
Population based case-control study
Funding agency
NCI, NIEHS
Study Participants
Menopausal Status
The menopausal status of women included in this study is listed here.
Pre menopausal
Post meopausal
Participant selection: Inclusion and exclusion criteria
Criteria used to select participants in the study.
In: Participants of the Western New York Breast Cancer Study. Incident, primary, histologically confirmed cases were frequency matched from DMV and Health Care Finance Administration rolls.
Exposures investigated
BMI, COMT allele frequencies, used PCR-RFLP
How exposure was measured
Biological Questionnaire, in-person
Ethnic groups with separate analysis
If this study provided a separate analysis by ethnic or racial group, the groups are listed here.
No
Confounders considered
Other breast cancer risk factors, such as family history, age at first birth, and hormone replacement therapy use, that were taken into account in the study.
Adequately controlled
Genetic characterization included
If the study analyzed relationships between environmental factors and inherited genetic variations, this field will be marked “Yes.” “No”, if not.
Yes
Description of major analysis
Logistic regression analysis of COMT genotype and breast cancer, including effect modification by BMI
Strength of associations reported
Heterozygous premenopausal women showed increased risk, and low-activity homozygous postmenopausal women showed decreased risk; No gene dose-effect
Stratification by tertiles of BMI showed that premenopausal women with BMI>27 had greatest risk (OR=5.7, CI: 1.1-30.1) whereas postmenopausal women with BMI < =23 had decreased risk (OR=0.3, CI:0.1-0.7)