Endogenous sex hormone levels and breast cancer risk
- 1 January 1987
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Wiley in Genetic Epidemiology
- Vol. 4 (4), 233-247
- https://doi.org/10.1002/gepi.1370040402
Abstract
Sex‐steroid hormones are a major determinant of the risk of breast cancer. We evaluated the relationship between obesity and endogenous estrogen levels in 79 healthy, postmenopausal women. Thirty‐nine of the women were siblings of patients with postmenopausal‐onset breast cancer; the remaining women were age matched (± 10 yr) controls. Our hypothesis was that the siblings of the breast cancer patients would weigh more and that this excess weight would lead to higher serum estrone levels. The choice of unaffected family members of breast cancer patients reduces the concern that results may have been influenced by the cancer rather than antecedent to its development. Our findings demonstrated a statistically significant excess estrone level in the siblings compared to the controls (58.9 vs 47.8 pg/ml, P=0.005). The siblings weighed 4.3 kg more than the controls. Matched pairs analysis (sibling—control), adjusting for weight, also showed significant differences in serum estrone levels. These differences were observed despite comparability in dietary intake, medication use, and personal medical history. These findings represent the first time that higher estrogen levels have been measured in siblings of postmenopausal breast cancer patients. This observation may represent an important link in our understanding of the relationship between genetic and environmental risk factors of breast cancer. One approach to subsequent genetic studies of breast cancer may be to focus on the possible biological determinants such as sex‐steroid hormone level receptors, oncogenes, and gene products and not on the “familial aggregation” of breast cancer.Keywords
This publication has 34 references indexed in Scilit:
- Cigarette Smoking, Serum Estrogens, and Bone Loss during Hormone-Replacement Therapy Early after MenopauseNew England Journal of Medicine, 1985
- Cigarette Smoking and the Risk of Endometrial CancerNew England Journal of Medicine, 1985
- Serum concentrations of total and non‐protein‐bound oestradiol in patients with breast cancer and in normal controlsInternational Journal of Cancer, 1982
- Plasma testosterone, high density lipoprotein cholesterol and other lipoprotein fractionsThe American Journal of Cardiology, 1981
- The Epidemiology and Etiology of Breast CancerNew England Journal of Medicine, 1980
- Plasma hormones in pre- and postmenopausal breast cancerThe Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 1980
- Genetics, etiology, and human cancerPreventive Medicine, 1980
- Steroid abnormalities in endometrial and breast carcinoma: A unifying hypothesisJournal of Steroid Biochemistry, 1976
- Circulating bound and free estradiol and estrone during normal growth and development and in premature thelarche and isosexual precocityThe Journal of Pediatrics, 1976
- CIRCULATING HORMONE CONCENTRATIONS IN WOMEN WITH BREAST CANCERThe Lancet, 1976