eCite Digital Repository
Is mammographic breast density an endophenotype for breast cancer?
Citation
Darcey, E and McCarthy, N and Moses, EK and Saunders, C and Cadby, G and Stone, J, Is mammographic breast density an endophenotype for breast cancer?, Cancers, 13, (15) pp. 1-11. ISSN 2072-6694 (2021) [Refereed Article]
 | PDF (Published version) 540Kb |
Copyright Statement
Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
DOI: doi:10.3390/cancers13153916
Abstract
Mammographic breast density (MBD) is a strong and highly heritable predictor of breast
cancer risk and a biomarker for the disease. This study systematically assesses MBD as an endophenotype for breast cancer—a quantitative trait that is heritable and genetically correlated with disease risk.
Using data from the family-based kConFab Study and the 1994/1995 cross-sectional Busselton Health
Study, participants were divided into three status groups—cases, relatives of cases and controls.
Participant’s mammograms were used to measure absolute dense area (DA) and percentage dense
area (PDA). To address each endophenotype criterion, linear mixed models and heritability analysis
were conducted. Both measures of MBD were significantly associated with breast cancer risk in two
independent samples. These measures were also highly heritable. Meta-analyses of both studies
showed that MBD measures were higher in cases compared to relatives (β = 0.48, 95% CI = 0.10, 0.86
and β = 0.41, 95% CI = 0.06, 0.78 for DA and PDA, respectively) and in relatives compared to controls
(β = 0.16, 95% CI = −0.24, 0.56 and β = 0.16, 95% CI = −0.21, 0.53 for DA and PDA, respectively).
This study formally demonstrates, for the first time, that MBD is an endophenotype for breast cancer.
Item Details
| Item Type: | Refereed Article |
|---|---|
| Keywords: | mammographic breast density, breast cancer, risk factor, endophenotype |
| Research Division: | Biomedical and Clinical Sciences |
| Research Group: | Oncology and carcinogenesis |
| Research Field: | Cancer genetics |
| Objective Division: | Health |
| Objective Group: | Clinical health |
| Objective Field: | Diagnosis of human diseases and conditions |
| UTAS Author: | Moses, EK (Professor Eric Moses) |
| ID Code: | 146916 |
| Year Published: | 2021 |
| Web of Science® Times Cited: | 2 |
| Deposited By: | Menzies Institute for Medical Research |
| Deposited On: | 2021-10-04 |
| Last Modified: | 2022-08-29 |
| Downloads: | 5 View Download Statistics |
Repository Staff Only: item control page