Melbourne School of Population and Global Health - Research Publications

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    Tamoxifen reduces plasma homocysteine levels in healthy women.
    Cattaneo, M ; Baglietto, L ; Zighetti, ML ; Bettega, D ; Robertson, C ; Costa, A ; Mannucci, PM ; Decensi, A (Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 1998-06)
    Treatment with tamoxifen is associated with reduced incidence of myocardial infarction. As plasma homocysteine is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease, we studied the effects of tamoxifen on plasma homocysteine in 66 healthy women participating in the Italian prevention trial of breast cancer who were randomized in a double-blind manner to tamoxifen 20 mg day(-1) or placebo for 5 years. They were aged between 35 and 70 years, had undergone previous hysterectomy for non-malignant conditions and had no contraindications to the use of tamoxifen. Plasma levels of total homocysteine (tHcy) were measured at randomization and after 2 and 6 months. The mean +/- s.d. plasma levels of tHcy were 7.59 +/- 1.71 micromol l(-1), 7.25 +/- 1.61 and 7.09 +/- 1.33 in the tamoxifen group and 8.07 +/- 2.06, 7.93 +/- 1.77 and 8.12 +/- 2.04 in the placebo group at 0, 2 and 6 months (P = 0.008 for the between-group difference over time). The higher the baseline tHcy level, the greater was the lowering effect of tamoxifen. No statistically significant effect of age, body mass index or smoking habit on baseline tHcy levels and its variation over time was found. In conclusion, tamoxifen (20 mg day(-1) for 6 months) decreased plasma tHcy levels in healthy women. This effect may contribute to its protective effect on myocardial infarction.
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    Effect of raloxifene on IGF-I and IGFBP-3 in postmenopausal women with breast cancer.
    Torrisi, R ; Baglietto, L ; Johansson, H ; Veronesi, G ; Bonanni, B ; Guerrieri-Gonzaga, A ; Ballardini, B ; Decensi, A (Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2001-12-14)
    The effect on the IGF system of 60 mg and 600 mg daily of raloxifene administered for 2 weeks prior to surgery was investigated in 37 postmenopausal women with breast cancer. Raloxifene significantly decreased insulin-like growth factor (IGF-I) as compared to placebo (P < 0.05) with no dose-response relationship. No significant change was observed in IGFBP-3, while the IGF-I/IGFBP-3 molar ratio was decreased by treatment, with a statistically significant effect only for the higher dose. Given that high plasma levels of IGF-I have been suggested as a risk factor for breast cancer, these findings provide further support for the potential activity of raloxifene in breast cancer prevention.
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    Heterogeneity of breast cancer associations with five susceptibility loci by clinical and pathological characteristics
    Garcia-Closas, M ; Hall, P ; Nevanlinna, H ; Pooley, K ; Morrison, J ; Richesson, DA ; Bojesen, SE ; Nordestgaard, BG ; Axelsson, CK ; Arias, JI ; Milne, RL ; Ribas, G ; Gonzalez-Neira, A ; Benitez, J ; Zamora, P ; Brauch, H ; Justenhoven, C ; Hamann, U ; Ko, Y-D ; Bruening, T ; Haas, S ; Doerk, T ; Schuermann, P ; Hillemanns, P ; Bogdanova, N ; Bremer, M ; Karstens, JH ; Fagerholm, R ; Aaltonen, K ; Aittomaki, K ; Von Smitten, K ; Blomqvist, C ; Mannermaa, A ; Uusitupa, M ; Eskelinen, M ; Tengstrom, M ; Kosma, V-M ; Kataja, V ; Chenevix-Trench, G ; Spurdle, AB ; Beesley, J ; Chen, X ; Devilee, P ; Van Asperen, CJ ; Jacobi, CE ; Tollenaar, RAEM ; Huijts, PEA ; Klijn, JGM ; Chang-Claude, J ; Kropp, S ; Slanger, T ; Flesch-Janys, D ; Mutschelknauss, E ; Salazar, R ; Wang-Gohrke, S ; Couch, F ; Goode, EL ; Olson, JE ; Vachon, C ; Fredericksen, ZS ; Giles, GG ; Baglietto, L ; Severi, G ; Hopper, JL ; English, DR ; Southey, MC ; Haiman, CA ; Henderson, BE ; Kolonel, LN ; Le Marchand, L ; Stram, DO ; Hunter, DJ ; Hankinson, SE ; Cox, DG ; Tamimi, R ; Kraft, P ; Sherman, ME ; Chanock, SJ ; Lissowska, J ; Brinton, LA ; Peplonska, B ; Klijn, JGM ; Hooning, MJ ; Meijers-Heijboer, H ; Collee, JM ; Van den Ouweland, A ; Uitterlinden, AG ; Liu, J ; Lin, LY ; Yuqing, L ; Humphreys, K ; Czene, K ; Cox, A ; Balasubramanian, SP ; Cross, SS ; Reed, MWR ; Blows, F ; Driver, K ; Dunning, A ; Tyrer, J ; Ponder, BAJ ; Sangrajrang, S ; Brennan, P ; Mckay, J ; Odefrey, F ; Gabrieau, V ; Sigurdson, A ; Doody, M ; Struewing, JP ; Alexander, B ; Easton, DF ; Pharoah, PD ; Leal, SM (PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE, 2008-04)
    A three-stage genome-wide association study recently identified single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in five loci (fibroblast growth receptor 2 (FGFR2), trinucleotide repeat containing 9 (TNRC9), mitogen-activated protein kinase 3 K1 (MAP3K1), 8q24, and lymphocyte-specific protein 1 (LSP1)) associated with breast cancer risk. We investigated whether the associations between these SNPs and breast cancer risk varied by clinically important tumor characteristics in up to 23,039 invasive breast cancer cases and 26,273 controls from 20 studies. We also evaluated their influence on overall survival in 13,527 cases from 13 studies. All participants were of European or Asian origin. rs2981582 in FGFR2 was more strongly related to ER-positive (per-allele OR (95%CI) = 1.31 (1.27-1.36)) than ER-negative (1.08 (1.03-1.14)) disease (P for heterogeneity = 10(-13)). This SNP was also more strongly related to PR-positive, low grade and node positive tumors (P = 10(-5), 10(-8), 0.013, respectively). The association for rs13281615 in 8q24 was stronger for ER-positive, PR-positive, and low grade tumors (P = 0.001, 0.011 and 10(-4), respectively). The differences in the associations between SNPs in FGFR2 and 8q24 and risk by ER and grade remained significant after permutation adjustment for multiple comparisons and after adjustment for other tumor characteristics. Three SNPs (rs2981582, rs3803662, and rs889312) showed weak but significant associations with ER-negative disease, the strongest association being for rs3803662 in TNRC9 (1.14 (1.09-1.21)). rs13281615 in 8q24 was associated with an improvement in survival after diagnosis (per-allele HR = 0.90 (0.83-0.97). The association was attenuated and non-significant after adjusting for known prognostic factors. Our findings show that common genetic variants influence the pathological subtype of breast cancer and provide further support for the hypothesis that ER-positive and ER-negative disease are biologically distinct. Understanding the etiologic heterogeneity of breast cancer may ultimately result in improvements in prevention, early detection, and treatment.