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Adiposity, hormone replacement therapy use and breast cancer risk by age and hormone receptor status: A large prospective cohort study

  • Rebecca Ritte
  • , Annekatrin Lukanova
  • , Franco Berrino
  • , Laure Dossus
  • , Anne Tjønneland
  • , Anja Olsen
  • , Thure F. Overvad
  • , Kim Overvad
  • , Françoise Clavel-Chapelon
  • , Agnès Fournier
  • , Guy Fagherazzi
  • , Sabine Rohrmann
  • , Birgit Teucher
  • , Heiner Boeing
  • , Krasimira Aleksandrova
  • , Antonia Trichopoulou
  • , Pagona Lagiou
  • , Dimitrios Trichopoulos
  • , Domenico Palli
  • , Sabina Sieri
  • Salvatore Panico, Rosario Tumino, Paolo Vineis, José R. Quirós, Genevieve Buckland, Maria José Sánchez, Pilar Amiano, María Dolores Chirlaque, Eva Ardanaz, Malin Sund, Per Lenner, Bas Bueno-de-Mesquita, Carla H. van Gils, Petra H.M. Peeters, Sanda Krum-Hansen, Inger T. Gram, Eiliv Lund, Kay Tee Khaw, Nick Wareham, Naomi E. Allen, Timothy J. Key, Isabelle Romieu, Sabina Rinaldi, Afshan Siddiq, David Cox, Elio Riboli, Rudolf Kaaks*
*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

105 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Introduction: Associations of hormone-receptor positive breast cancer with excess adiposity are reasonably well characterized; however, uncertainty remains regarding the association of body mass index (BMI) with hormone-receptor negative malignancies, and possible interactions by hormone replacement therapy (HRT) use.Methods: Within the European EPIC cohort, Cox proportional hazards models were used to describe the relationship of BMI, waist and hip circumferences with risk of estrogen-receptor (ER) negative and progesterone-receptor (PR) negative (n = 1,021) and ER+PR+ (n = 3,586) breast tumors within five-year age bands. Among postmenopausal women, the joint effects of BMI and HRT use were analyzed.Results: For risk of ER-PR- tumors, there was no association of BMI across the age bands. However, when analyses were restricted to postmenopausal HRT never users, a positive risk association with BMI (third versus first tertile HR = 1.47 (1.01 to 2.15)) was observed. BMI was inversely associated with ER+PR+ tumors among women aged ≤49 years (per 5 kg/m2 increase, HR = 0.79 (95%CI 0.68 to 0.91)), and positively associated with risk among women ≥65 years (HR = 1.25 (1.16 to 1.34)). Adjusting for BMI, waist and hip circumferences showed no further associations with risks of breast cancer subtypes. Current use of HRT was significantly associated with an increased risk of receptor-negative (HRT current use compared to HRT never use HR: 1.30 (1.05 to 1.62)) and positive tumors (HR: 1.74 (1.56 to 1.95)), although this risk increase was weaker for ER-PR- disease (Phet = 0.035). The association of HRT was significantly stronger in the leaner women (BMI ≤22.5 kg/m2) than for more overweight women (BMI ≥25.9 kg/m2) for, both, ER-PR- (HR: 1.74 (1.15 to 2.63)) and ER+PR+ (HR: 2.33 (1.84 to 2.92)) breast cancer and was not restricted to any particular HRT regime.Conclusions: An elevated BMI may be positively associated with risk of ER-PR- tumors among postmenopausal women who never used HRT. Furthermore, postmenopausal HRT users were at an increased risk of ER-PR- as well as ER+PR+ tumors, especially among leaner women. For hormone-receptor positive tumors, but not for hormone-receptor negative tumors, our study confirms an inverse association of risk with BMI among young women of premenopausal age. Our data provide evidence for a possible role of sex hormones in the etiology of hormone-receptor negative tumors.

Original languageEnglish
Article numberR76
JournalBreast Cancer Research
Volume14
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 14 May 2012
Externally publishedYes

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