Dataset Information

Estrogen receptor positive breast cancers and their association with environmental factors.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Epidemiological studies to assess risk factors for breast cancer often do not differentiate between different types of breast cancers. We applied a general linear model to determine whether data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program on annual county level age-adjusted incidence rates of breast cancer with and without estrogen receptors (ER+ and ER-) were associated with environmental pollutants.

Results

Our final model explained approximately 38% of the variation in the rate of ER+ breast cancer. In contrast, we were only able to explain 14% of the variation in the rate of ER- breast cancer with the same set of environmental variables. Only ER+ breast cancers were positively associated with the EPA's estimated risk of cancer based on toxic air emissions and the proportion of agricultural land in a county. Meteorological variables, including short wave radiation, temperature, precipitation, and water vapor pressure, were also significantly associated with the rate of ER+ breast cancer, after controlling for age, race, premature mortality from heart disease, and unemployment rate.

Conclusions

Our findings were consistent with what we expected, given the fact that many of the commonly used pesticides and air pollutants included in the EPA cancer risk score are classified as endocrine disruptors and ER+ breast cancers respond more strongly to estrogen than ER- breast cancers. The findings of this study suggest that ER+ and ER- breast cancers have different risk factors, which should be taken into consideration in future studies that seek to understand environmental risk factors for breast cancer.

SUBMITTER: St-Hilaire S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3100231 | biostudies-literature | 2011 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Estrogen receptor positive breast cancers and their association with environmental factors.

St-Hilaire Sophie S Mandal Rakesh R Commendador Amy A Mannel Sylvio S Derryberry DeWayne D

International journal of health geographics 20110510

<h4>Background</h4>Epidemiological studies to assess risk factors for breast cancer often do not differentiate between different types of breast cancers. We applied a general linear model to determine whether data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program on annual county level age-adjusted incidence rates of breast cancer with and without estrogen receptors (ER+ and ER-) were associated with environmental pollutants.<h4>Results</h4>Our final model explained approximately 38% ...[more]

PMID: 21569288

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Project description:BackgroundDirectly comparing gene expression profiles of estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) and estrogen receptor-negative (ER-) breast cancers cannot determine whether differentially expressed genes between these two subtypes result from dysregulated expression in ER+ cancer or ER- cancer versus normal controls, and thus would miss critical information for elucidating the transcriptomic difference between the two subtypes.Principal findingsUsing microarray datasets from TCGA, we classified the genes dysregulated in both ER+ and ER- cancers versus normal controls into two classes: (i) genes dysregulated in the same direction but to a different extent, and (ii) genes dysregulated to opposite directions, and then validated the two classes in RNA-sequencing datasets of independent cohorts. We showed that the genes dysregulated to a larger extent in ER+ cancers than in ER- cancers enriched in glycerophospholipid and polysaccharide metabolic processes, while the genes dysregulated to a larger extent in ER- cancers than in ER+ cancers enriched in cell proliferation. Phosphorylase kinase and enzymes of glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) anchor biosynthesis were upregulated to a larger extent in ER+ cancers than in ER- cancers, whereas glycogen synthase and phospholipase A2 were downregulated to a larger extent in ER+ cancers than in ER- cancers. We also found that the genes oppositely dysregulated in the two subtypes significantly enriched with known cancer genes and tended to closely collaborate with the cancer genes. Furthermore, we showed the possibility that these oppositely dysregulated genes could contribute to carcinogenesis of ER+ and ER- cancers through rewiring different subpathways.ConclusionsGPI-anchor biosynthesis and glycogenolysis were elevated and hydrolysis of phospholipids was depleted to a larger extent in ER+ cancers than in ER- cancers. Our findings indicate that the genes oppositely dysregulated in the two subtypes are potential cancer genes which could contribute to carcinogenesis of both ER+ and ER- cancers through rewiring different subpathways.

Dataset Information

Estrogen receptor positive breast cancers and their association with environmental factors.

Background

Results

Conclusions

Publications

Estrogen receptor positive breast cancers and their association with environmental factors.

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