Endogenous Sex Hormones and Breast Cancer in Postmenopausal Women: Reanalysis of Nine Prospective Studies

Background: Reproductive and hormonal factors are involved in the etiology of breast cancer, but there are only a few prospective studies on endogenous sex hormone levels and breast cancer risk. We reanalyzed the worldwide data from prospective studies to examine the relationship between the levels...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:JNCI : Journal of the National Cancer Institute 2002-04, Vol.94 (8), p.606-616
Main Authors: Key, T, Appleby, P, Barnes, I, Reeves, G
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aged
Androstenedione - biosynthesis
Biological and medical sciences
Breast Neoplasms - etiology
Breast Neoplasms - metabolism
Case-Control Studies
Dehydroepiandrosterone - biosynthesis
Dehydroepiandrosterone Sulfate - metabolism
Estradiol - biosynthesis
Estrone - analogs & derivatives
Estrone - biosynthesis
Female
Gynecology. Andrology. Obstetrics
Hormone Replacement Therapy
Humans
Mammary gland diseases
Medical sciences
Middle Aged
Prospective Studies
Risk
Sex Hormone-Binding Globulin - biosynthesis
Testosterone - biosynthesis
Time Factors
Tumors
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Background: Reproductive and hormonal factors are involved in the etiology of breast cancer, but there are only a few prospective studies on endogenous sex hormone levels and breast cancer risk. We reanalyzed the worldwide data from prospective studies to examine the relationship between the levels of endogenous sex hormones and breast cancer risk in postmenopausal women. Methods: We analyzed the individual data from nine prospective studies on 663 women who developed breast cancer and 1765 women who did not. None of the women was taking exogenous sex hormones when their blood was collected to determine hormone levels. The relative risks (RRs) for breast cancer associated with increasing hormone concentrations were estimated by conditional logistic regression on case–control sets matched within each study. Linear trends and heterogeneity of RRs were assessed by two-sided tests or chi-square tests, as appropriate. Results: The risk for breast cancer increased statistically significantly with increasing concentrations of all sex hormones examined: total estradiol, free estradiol, non-sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG)-bound estradiol (which comprises free and albumin-bound estradiol), estrone, estrone sulfate, androstenedione, dehydroepiandrosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate, and testosterone. The RRs for women with increasing quintiles of estradiol concentrations, relative to the lowest quintile, were 1.42 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.04 to 1.95), 1.21 (95% CI = 0.89 to 1.66), 1.80 (95% CI = 1.33 to 2.43), and 2.00 (95% CI = 1.47 to 2.71; Ptrend
ISSN:0027-8874
1460-2105
1460-2105
DOI:10.1093/jnci/94.8.606