Abstract B086: Association of breast cancer-relevant DNA repair genes with postmenopausal breast cancer risk in UK Biobank

Abstract

Abstract Purpose. Several polymorphisms have been described in DNA damage signaling and repair genes and some of the polymorphisms have been implicated in genetic susceptibility to breast cancer. However, there is no consensus result yet for most of these polymorphisms. In this study, we focused on evaluating selected SNPs in BRCA1, BRCA2, ATM, XRCC1, XRCC2, XRCC3, and XPD (ERCC2) genes that have been previously reported to be associated with breast cancer risk and are available in the UK Biobank. Methods. This study included 150,929 postmenopausal women (5,969 with BCa) from UK Biobank, a population-based prospective cohort. Cancer diagnoses were ascertained through the linkage to the UK National Health Service Central Registers. DNA was extracted from blood samples collected from participants at enrollment in UK Biobank. Samples were genotyped using the Applied Biosystems UK BiLEVE Axiom Array or the Applied Biosystems UK Biobank Axiom Array. The positions of markers in the data are in GRCh37 coordinates. SNPs with frequency < 1% in the study population were excluded from analyses. We included the following SNPs in the final analyses: XRCC3-rs861539, BRCA1-rs16942, BRCA1-rs4986852, XRCC1-rs25487, XRCC1-rs25489, XRCC1-rs1799782, XPD (ERCC2)-rs13181, XPD (ERCC2)-rs1799793, XRCC2-rs3218536, ATM-rs1800056, ATM-rs1800057, BRCA2-rs144848, BRCA2-rs4987117, and BRCA2-rs11571833. Information on breast cancer risk factors was collected at baseline. Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to analyze the association between each SNP and breast cancer risk while adjusting for known breast cancer risk factors. The risk estimates were presented as hazard rations (HRs) and their corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results. The mean age of the study population at enrollment was 60.1 years (range 40-71 years). Heterozygous carriers of BRCA2-rs11571833 T allele were found to have an increased risk of breast cancer (HR=1.22, 95% CI 1.02, 1.46, p-trend = 0.033) compared to the homozygous carriers of the BRCA2-rs11571833 A allele. No other significant associations between other SNPs and breast cancer risk were found. Conclusions. We found a significant association between SNP BRCA2-rs11571833 and postmenopausal breast cancer risk. Our findings contribute to the existing evidence on the association of high-risk polymorphisms in DNA damage signaling and repair genes with postmenopausal breast cancer risk. Citation Format: Carmen Smotherman, Brian Sprague, Dejana Braithwaite, Huaizhen Qin, Lusine Yaghjyan. Association of breast cancer-relevant DNA repair genes with postmenopausal breast cancer risk in UK Biobank [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference in Cancer Research: Advances in Breast Cancer Research; 2023 Oct 19-22; San Diego, California. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(3 Suppl_1):Abstract nr B086.