Dietary isoflavone intake and all-cause mortality in breast cancer survivors: The Breast Cancer Family Registry.

Background: Soy foods possess both antiestrogenic and estrogen-like properties. It remains controversial whether women diagnosed with breast cancer should be advised to eat more or less soy foods, especially for those who receive hormone therapies as part of cancer treatment.

Methods: The association of dietary intake of isoflavone, the major phytoestrogen in soy, with all-cause mortality was examined in 6235 women with breast cancer enrolled in the Breast Cancer Family Registry.

Variation in risk and outcomes of Epstein-Barr virus-associated breast cancer by epidemiologic characteristics and virus detection strategies: an exploratory study.

Purpose: A relationship of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and breast cancer etiology and outcome may have clinical utility and potential to enhance understanding of tumor biology. Research to date has yielded variable results, likely reflecting differing virus detection assays and unaddressed epidemiologic heterogeneity across studies.

Methods: Applying our novel, five-target assay detection strategy in an exploratory study, we examined demographic, clinical, and tumor characteristics, and overall survival, associated with EBV positivity in breast adenocarcinomas from 59 non-Hispanic white and 68 Hispanic women sampled by age (<50, 50+) and stage (localized, regional/remote) and examined associations based on single assay targets.

Cancer Mortality in Hispanic Ethnic Groups.

Cancer is the leading cause of death among Hispanics. The burden of cancer mortality within Hispanic groups has not been well quantified. Cancer mortality rates for 2008-2012 in Florida were computed on the basis of race, ethnicity, and birthplace, specifically focusing on major Hispanic groups-Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Central Americans, South Americans, and Dominicans.

Patient and primary care provider attitudes and adherence towards lung cancer screening at an academic medical center.

Low dose CT (LDCT) for lung cancer screening is an evidence-based, guideline recommended, and Medicare approved test but uptake requires further study. We therefore conducted patient and provider surveys to elucidate factors associated with utilization. Patients referred for LDCT at an academic medical center were questioned about their attitudes, knowledge, and beliefs on lung cancer screening.

Racial/Ethnic Differences in the Impact of Neighborhood Social and Built Environment on Breast Cancer Risk: The Neighborhoods and Breast Cancer Study.

Neighborhood socioeconomic status (nSES) has been found to be associated with breast cancer risk. It remains unclear whether this association applies across racial/ethnic groups independent of individual-level factors and is attributable to other neighborhood characteristics. We examined the independent and joint associations of education and nSES with odds of breast cancer.

Non-invasive optical spectroscopic monitoring of breast development during puberty.

Background: Tanner staging (TS), a five-stage classification indicating no breast tissue (TS1) to full breast development (TS5), is used both in health research and clinical care to assess the onset of breast development (TS2) and duration in each stage. Currently, TS is measured both visually and through palpation but non-invasive methods will improve comparisons across settings.

Methods: We used optical spectroscopy (OS) measures from 102 girls at the Ontario site of the LEGACY girls study (average age 12 years, range 10.

Impact of Social and Built Environment Factors on Body Size among Breast Cancer Survivors: The Pathways Study.

As social and built environment factors have been shown to be associated with physical activity, dietary patterns, and obesity in the general population, they likely also influence these health behaviors among cancer survivors and thereby impact survivorship outcomes. Enhancing the rich, individual-level survey and medical record data from 4,505 breast cancer survivors in the Pathways Study, a prospective cohort drawn from Kaiser Permanente Northern California, we geocoded baseline residential addresses and appended social and built environment data. With multinomial logistic models, we examined associations between neighborhood characteristics and body mass index and whether neighborhood factors explained racial/ethnic/nativity disparities in overweight/obesity.

Contextual Impact of Neighborhood Obesogenic Factors on Postmenopausal Breast Cancer: The Multiethnic Cohort.

While obesity is well-understood to increase breast cancer risk, the role of the neighborhood obesogenic environment, encompassing social and built environment attributes that influence body size, is poorly understood. Using principal components factor analysis, five composite factors [neighborhood socioeconomic status (nSES), urban, mixed-land development, unhealthy food environment, parks] on the basis of geospatial data were developed to characterize the obesogenic environment for 48,247 postmenopausal women in the Multiethnic Cohort, residing predominately in Los Angeles County. We used Cox proportional hazards regression to examine the association between neighborhood obesogenic factors and breast cancer risk ( = 2,341 cases after 17 years of follow-up), adjusting for body mass index (BMI), weight gain since age 21, education, established risk factors, other neighborhood factors, and clustering by block group.

Recent declines in cancer incidence: related to the Great Recession?

Purpose: In recent years, cancer case counts in the U.S. underwent a large, rapid decline-an unexpected change given population growth for older persons at highest cancer risk.

Tracing a Path to the Past: Exploring the Use of Commercial Credit Reporting Data to Construct Residential Histories for Epidemiologic Studies of Environmental Exposures.

Large-scale environmental epidemiologic studies often rely on exposure estimates based on linkage to residential addresses. This approach, however, is limited by the lack of residential histories typically available for study participants. Our objective was to evaluate the feasibility of using address data from LexisNexis (a division of RELX, Inc.

Evaluation of cortisol and telomere length measurements in ethnically diverse women with breast cancer using culturally sensitive methods.

The under-representation of ethnic minority participants, who are more likely to be socially disadvantaged in biomedical research, limits generalizability of results and reductions in health disparities. To facilitate investigations of how social disadvantage "gets under the skin," this pilot study evaluated low-intensity methods for collecting hair and saliva samples from multiethnic breast cancer survivors (N = 70) and analysis of biomarkers of chronic stress (cortisol levels) and biological age (telomere length). Methods allowed for easy self-collection of hair (for cortisol) and saliva (for telomere lengths) samples that were highly stable for shipment and long-term storage.

Association between GWAS-identified lung adenocarcinoma susceptibility loci and EGFR mutations in never-smoking Asian women, and comparison with findings from Western populations.

To evaluate associations by EGFR mutation status for lung adenocarcinoma risk among never-smoking Asian women, we conducted a meta-analysis of 11 loci previously identified in genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Genotyping in an additional 10,780 never-smoking cases and 10,938 never-smoking controls from Asia confirmed associations with eight known single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Two new signals were observed at genome-wide significance (P < 5 × 10-8), namely, rs7216064 (17q24.

Projecting Individualized Absolute Invasive Breast Cancer Risk in US Hispanic Women.

Background: There is no model to estimate absolute invasive breast cancer risk for Hispanic women.

Methods: The San Francisco Bay Area Breast Cancer Study (SFBCS) provided data on Hispanic breast cancer case patients (533 US-born, 553 foreign-born) and control participants (464 US-born, 947 foreign-born). These data yielded estimates of relative risk (RR) and attributable risk (AR) separately for US-born and foreign-born women.

Lifetime body size and estrogen-receptor-positive breast cancer risk in the California Teachers Study cohort.

Background: Obesity is a public health epidemic and an important breast cancer risk factor. The relationship between interrelated body measurements is complex and most studies fail to account for this complexity. We identified key aspects of body size which jointly, over the life-course (since adolescence), are associated with estrogen-receptor-positive (ER+) breast cancer risk.

Strategies for Enriching Variant Coverage in Candidate Disease Loci on a Multiethnic Genotyping Array.

Investigating genetic architecture of complex traits in ancestrally diverse populations is imperative to understand the etiology of disease. However, the current paucity of genetic research in people of African and Latin American ancestry, Hispanic and indigenous peoples in the United States is likely to exacerbate existing health disparities for many common diseases. The Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology, Phase II (PAGE II), Study was initiated in 2013 by the National Human Genome Research Institute to expand our understanding of complex trait loci in ethnically diverse and well characterized study populations.

Synergistic drug combinations from electronic health records and gene expression.

Objective: Using electronic health records (EHRs) and biomolecular data, we sought to discover drug pairs with synergistic repurposing potential. EHRs provide real-world treatment and outcome patterns, while complementary biomolecular data, including disease-specific gene expression and drug-protein interactions, provide mechanistic understanding.

Method: We applied Group Lasso INTERaction NETwork (glinternet), an overlap group lasso penalty on a logistic regression model, with pairwise interactions to identify variables and interacting drug pairs associated with reduced 5-year mortality using EHRs of 9945 breast cancer patients.

The Interaction between Genetic Ancestry and Breast Cancer Risk Factors among Hispanic Women: The Breast Cancer Health Disparities Study.

Hispanic women have lower breast cancer incidence rates than non-Hispanic white (NHW) women. To what extent genetic versus nongenetic factors account for this difference is unknown. Using logistic regression, we evaluated the interactive influences of established risk factors and ethnicity (self-identified and identified by ancestral informative markers) on breast cancer risk among 2,326 Hispanic and 1,854 NHW postmenopausal women from the United States and Mexico in the Breast Cancer Health Disparities Study.

Prevalence and characteristics of cancer patients receiving care from single vs. multiple institutions.

Introduction: Patients may receive cancer care from multiple institutions. However, at the population level, such patterns of cancer care are poorly described, complicating clinical research. To determine the population-based prevalence and characteristics of patients seen by multiple institutions, we used operations data from a state-mandated cancer registry.

Effects of exercise on markers of oxidative stress: an Ancillary analysis of the Alberta Physical Activity and Breast Cancer Prevention Trial.

Background: Oxidative stress may contribute to cancer aetiology through several mechanisms involving damage to DNA, proteins and lipids leading to genetic mutations and genomic instability. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of aerobic exercise on markers of oxidative damage and antioxidant enzymes in postmenopausal women.

Methods: The Alberta Physical Activity and Breast Cancer Prevention Trial (ALPHA) was a two-centre, two-armed randomised trial of 320 inactive, healthy, postmenopausal women aged 50-74 years.

Generalization and fine mapping of European ancestry-based central adiposity variants in African ancestry populations.

Background/objectives: Central adiposity measures such as waist circumference (WC) and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) are associated with cardiometabolic disorders independently of body mass index (BMI) and are gaining clinically utility. Several studies report genetic variants associated with central adiposity, but most utilize only European ancestry populations. Understanding whether the genetic associations discovered among mainly European descendants are shared with African ancestry populations will help elucidate the biological underpinnings of abdominal fat deposition.

Pre-diagnostic breastfeeding, adiposity, and mortality among parous Hispanic and non-Hispanic white women with invasive breast cancer: the Breast Cancer Health Disparities Study.

Background: U.S. Hispanic women have high rates of parity, breastfeeding, and obesity.

Inheritance of deleterious mutations at both BRCA1 and BRCA2 in an international sample of 32,295 women.

Background: Most BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation carriers have inherited a single (heterozygous) mutation. Transheterozygotes (TH) who have inherited deleterious mutations in both BRCA1 and BRCA2 are rare, and the consequences of transheterozygosity are poorly understood.

Methods: From 32,295 female BRCA1/2 mutation carriers, we identified 93 TH (0.

Body size over the life-course and the risk of endometrial cancer: the California Teachers Study.

Purpose: Obesity is a public health epidemic and a major risk factor for endometrial cancer. Here, we identify key aspects of body size which jointly, over the life-course (since adolescence), are associated with endometrial cancer risk.

Methods: Among 88,142 participants in the California Teachers Study, 887 were diagnosed with invasive type 1 endometrial cancer between 1997-1998 and 2012.

Association of breast cancer risk in BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers with genetic variants showing differential allelic expression: identification of a modifier of breast cancer risk at locus 11q22.3.

Purpose: Cis-acting regulatory SNPs resulting in differential allelic expression (DAE) may, in part, explain the underlying phenotypic variation associated with many complex diseases. To investigate whether common variants associated with DAE were involved in breast cancer susceptibility among BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers, a list of 175 genes was developed based of their involvement in cancer-related pathways.

Methods: Using data from a genome-wide map of SNPs associated with allelic expression, we assessed the association of ~320 SNPs located in the vicinity of these genes with breast and ovarian cancer risks in 15,252 BRCA1 and 8211 BRCA2 mutation carriers ascertained from 54 studies participating in the Consortium of Investigators of Modifiers of BRCA1/2.