Abstract 874: Low plasma coenzyme Q10 levels and breast cancer risk in Chinese women: Influence of menopausal status

Abstract

Abstract Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) is an essential component of mitochondrial ATP synthesis and an important cellular antioxidant. Decreased circulating levels of CoQ10 have been associated with increased cancer incidence and poor prognosis for a number of cancer types. Limited clinical data suggest that supplemental CoQ10 may benefit breast cancer patients, as evidenced by regression of cancer and increased survival. We prospectively examined the association of plasma CoQ10 with breast cancer risk in a nested case-control study within the Shanghai Women's Health Study. Pre-diagnostic plasma samples were obtained from 373 cases and 740 age-matched controls and analyzed for total CoQ10 by HPLC with UV detection after precolumn coulometric oxidation. A risk reduction of borderline significance was associated with increasing plasma CoQ10 level using a conditional logistic regression model adjusted for age. Analysis by menopausal status revealed approximately a 50% reduction in odds ratio for pre-menopausal women in the highest quartiles of plasma CoQ10 compared to those with the lowest (p for trend = 0.01). In contrast, no significant reduction in risk was observed for post-menopausal women with increasing plasma CoQ10. Adjustment of the model for age, education, age at menarche, age at 1st live birth, months of breast feeding, history of fibroadenoma, first degree family cancer history, smoking history, and use of hormone replacement therapy yielded similar results: a significant inverse trend for breast cancer risk with increasing plasma CoQ10 in pre-menopausal women (p = 0.03) and no association for post-menopausal women. The data suggest that future epidemiologic studies of CoQ10 and breast cancer for pre-menopausal women are warranted and highlight the need for greater understanding of the origins and physiologic meaning of circulating CoQ10 in humans. This work was supported by NIH Grants CA 132149 (RVC), CA106591 (QD), and CA70867 (WZ). Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 874.