Hormone metabolism genes and mammographic density in singapore chinese women

Abstract

Background: Female steroid hormone levels and exogenous hormone use influence breast cancer risk. We investigated the association between genetic variation in the hormone metabolism and signaling pathway and mammographic density, a strong predictor of breast cancer risk. Methods: We genotyped 161 SNPs in 15 hormone metabolism pathway gene regions and evaluated mammographic density in 2,038 Singapore Chinese women. Linear regression analysis was used to investigate single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and mammographic density association. An overall pathway summary was obtained using the adaptive ranked truncated product test. Results: We did not find any of the individually tested SNPs to be associated with mammographic density after a multiple testing correction. There was no evidence of an overall effect on mammographic density of genetic variation in the hormone metabolism pathway. Conclusions: In this cross-sectional study, genetic variation in hormone metabolism pathway was not associated with mammographic density in Singapore Chinese women. Impact: Consistent with existing data from Caucasian populations, polymorphisms in hormone pathway genes are not likely to be strong predictors of mammographic density in Asian women. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 22(5); 984-6. © 2013 American Association for Cancer Research.