Postmenopausal plasma sex hormone levels and breast cancer risk over 20 years of follow-up

Plasma estrogen and androgen levels are positively associated with postmenopausal breast cancer risk, but how long a single blood measurement can predict risk and whether the associations vary by tumor hormone receptor status remain unclear. We conducted nested case–control analyses within the Nurse...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Breast cancer research and treatment 2013-02, Vol.137 (3), p.883-892
Main Authors: Zhang, Xuehong, Tworoger, Shelley S., Eliassen, A. Heather, Hankinson, Susan E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Biological and medical sciences
Breast cancer
Breast Neoplasms - blood
Breast Neoplasms - epidemiology
Cancer research
Case-Control Studies
Dehydroepiandrosterone
Epidemiology
Estrogen
Female
Follow-Up Studies
Gonadal Steroid Hormones - blood
Gynecology. Andrology. Obstetrics
Health aspects
Hormones
Humans
Mammary gland diseases
Medical sciences
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Middle Aged
Multiple tumors. Solid tumors. Tumors in childhood (general aspects)
Oncology
Postmenopausal women
Postmenopause - blood
Risk
Risk factors
Testosterone
Tumors
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Summary:Plasma estrogen and androgen levels are positively associated with postmenopausal breast cancer risk, but how long a single blood measurement can predict risk and whether the associations vary by tumor hormone receptor status remain unclear. We conducted nested case–control analyses within the Nurses’ Health Study. Blood samples were collected in 1989–1990 and again in 2000–2002. Among postmenopausal women not using postmenopausal hormones at blood collection, 707 cases were diagnosed through June 2010, with two matched controls per case. We used unconditional logistic regression analyses to estimate the relative risks controlling for other breast cancer risk factors. The intra-class correlation coefficients for two blood measurements collected 10 years apart ranged from 0.54 (dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate, DHEAS) to 0.74 (sex hormone-binding globulin, SHBG). Overall, women in the top (vs. bottom) 25 % of levels of estradiol, free estradiol, testosterone, free testosterone, and DHEAS were at a 50–110 % higher risk of breast cancer ( p trend   0.2). Except for DHEAS, the associations varied significantly by hormone receptor status ( p heterogeneity  ≤ 0.02). For example, the RRs (95 % CIs) comparing the highest versus lowest quartile were 2.8 (2.0–4.0; p trend  
ISSN:0167-6806
1573-7217
DOI:10.1007/s10549-012-2391-z