Speaker(s)
Jennifer Brooks, MS
PhD Candidate
New York University School of Medicine
Environmental Medicine - Division of Epidemiology
Date
January 13, 2009
Time
12:00 PM
DetailsThe New York University Women's Health Study (NYUWHS) enrolled 14, 274 women aged 35-65 between the years 1985 and 1991 at a breast cancer screening clinic in Manhattan. At the baseline visit, women completed a self-administered questionnaire and donated blood that was stored for future research. Participants continue to be followed-up with self-administered questionnaires and linkage to the National Death Index and the state tumor registries of New York, New Jersey and Florida. Reported cancer cases are confirmed through examination of medical and pathology reports. A total of 1,006 invasive breast cancer cases were diagnosed prior to 7/1/03.
This talk will discuss two ongoing projects using the resources of the NYUWHS. First, results of analyses exploring the relationships between NSAIDs, serum sex hormones and breast cancer risk in postmenopausal participants will be presented. Current NSAID use at baseline was associated with lower serum estradiol (Median (10th, 90th percentile) non-users: 22.9 pg/ml (15.1, 38.2), users: 21.3 pg/ml (13.5, 37.7), p<0.05) and higher serum SHBG (non-users: 46.6 nmol/l (23.1, 84.2), users: 47.6 nmol/l (23.0, 89.6), p<0.05). Though, long-term regular use of NSAIDs was not significantly related to breast cancer risk in our study (OR=0.73, 95% CI 0.49-1.07, p=0.11), the results were in the same direction and magnitude of those reported in literature.
Second, current results and challenges of a study examining the potential of promoter methylation status of tumor suppressor genes (RASSF1A, GSTP1, APC and RAR
2) in serum DNA as an early marker for breast cancer will be described. Methylation frequencies were low and did not differ across case-control groups (cases: 2-22%, controls: 1-17%). This is the first prospective study of methylation and breast cancer, implications for future studies will be discussed.
