BOSTON, MA—Blood hormone tests can predict a woman's risk for developing postmenopausal breast cancer for up to 20 years, according to a study led by Xuehong Zhang, MD, Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) Department of Medicine.
The findings will be presented at the 11th Annual American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research.
Using data from the Nurses' Health Study, Zhang , Susan Hankinson, ScD, Channing Division of Network Medicine, BWH Department of Medicine and colleagues analyzed 796 patients with postmenopausal breast cancer who had not received hormone therapy.
They conducted blood hormone tests at two time points: between 1989 and 1990 and between 2000 and 2002. Researchers matched each patient with two controls who were not diagnosed with breast cancer.
"We found that a single hormone level was associated with breast cancer risk for at least 16 to 20 years among postmenopausal women not using postmenopausal hormones," said Zhang. "We, and others, are now evaluating if the addition of hormone levels to current risk prediction models can substantially improve our ability to identify high-risk women who would benefit from enhanced screening or chemoprevention—if so, the current data suggest that hormone levels would not need to be measured in the clinic more than once every 10, or possibly 20, years."
Women with hormone levels in the highest 25 percent for estradiol, testosterone and DHEAS had a 50 percent to 107 percent greater chance for developing breast cancer compared with women in the lowest 25 percent. Relative risks for developing breast cancer were similar at one to 10 years vs. 11 to 20 years (also 16 to 20 years) after blood collection.
Researchers also investigated whether these higher levels were more closely linked to hormone-receptor positive breast cancers and if they predicted risk regardless of tumor aggressiveness.
In the first case, they found that elevated levels of estradiol increase a woman's risk for hormone receptor-positive breast cancer, specifically estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) and progesterone receptor-positive (PR+) tumors.
In general, increased hormone levels, except for DHEAS, tracked closely with increased risk for receptor-positive breast cancer. Data on receptor-negative cancers were inconclusive and need additional, large studies.
Significantly, elevated hormone levels were also associated with aggressive breast cancer, which the study defined as recurrent or fatal cancer.
"The relationship was comparable or possibly stronger for recurrent and fatal breast cancer than it was for overall breast cancer risk although these results were based on relative small numbers of participants," said Zhang.
Researchers also confirmed the protective effect of sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG), which seems to negate the cancer-causing effects of certain hormones. Women in the highest 25 percent of SHBG levels had a 30 percent lower risk for breast cancer compared with women in the lowest 25 percent for SHBG levels.
Zhang noted that the study had low case numbers for several cancer subgroups, including HER2, triple-negative and basal-like breast cancers. More research is necessary to determine the relationship between elevated hormone levels and these important breast cancer groups.
This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health (CA49449 and CA87969).
This press release was adapted from the American Association for Cancer Research.
Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) is a 793-bed nonprofit teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School and a founding member of Partners HealthCare. BWH has more than 3.5 million annual patient visits, is the largest birthing center in New England and employs nearly 15,000 people. The Brigham's medical preeminence dates back to 1832, and today that rich history in clinical care is coupled with its national leadership in patient care, quality improvement and patient safety initiatives, and its dedication to research, innovation, community engagement and educating and training the next generation of health care professionals. Through investigation and discovery conducted at its Biomedical Research Institute (BRI), BWH is an international leader in basic, clinical and translational research on human diseases, involving nearly 1,000 physician-investigators and renowned biomedical scientists and faculty supported by nearly $625 million in funding. BWH continually pushes the boundaries of medicine, including building on its legacy in organ transplantation by performing the first face transplants in the U.S. in 2011. BWH is also home to major landmark epidemiologic population studies, including the Nurses' and Physicians' Health Studies, OurGenes and the Women's Health Initiative. For more information and resources, please visit BWH's online newsroom.