No evidence of familial correlation in breast cancer metastasis

Alice S. Whittemore, Beth Stearman, Vickie Venne, Jerry Halpern, Anna Felberg, Valerie McGuire, Mary Daly, Saundra S. Buys

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

Animal experiments support the hypothesis that the metastatic potential of breast cancer is a heritable trait of the host. Our objective was to evaluate correlations in metastasis occurrence in large families with multiple cases of breast cancer. We evaluated correlation among pairs of relatives in the occurrence and timing of distant metastasis using retrospective cohort data from 743 female breast cancer patients in 242 families. We adjusted for correlation in their age at diagnosis, year of diagnosis, educational level, lymph node involvement, and estrogen receptor status. Distant metastasis occurred in 255 patients (34.3%) during mean followup of 11.7 years. None of the correlation coefficients for metastasis in blood relatives differed significantly from zero. The estimated correlation coefficient in first-degree relatives was -0.03 (95% confidence interval -0.11 to 0.06). These findings suggest that a family history of metastatic breast cancer does not contribute substantially to risk of metastasis for breast cancer patients.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)575-581
Number of pages7
JournalBreast Cancer Research and Treatment
Volume118
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2009

Keywords

  • Adult
  • Age of Onset
  • Breast Neoplasms/genetics
  • Female
  • Genetic Predisposition to Disease
  • Humans
  • Middle Aged
  • Neoplasm Invasiveness/genetics
  • Prognosis
  • Retrospective Studies
  • Risk Factors

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'No evidence of familial correlation in breast cancer metastasis'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this