Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2017:12:19-28.

Epigenome-wide association studies for breast cancer risk and risk factors

Annelie Johansson  1 , James M Flanagan  1
Affiliations

Epigenome-wide association studies for breast cancer risk and risk factors

Annelie Johansson et al. Trends Cancer Res. 2017.

Abstract

There have been six epigenome-wide association studies (EWAS) for breast cancer risk using blood DNA from prospective cohorts published thus far, and the only consistent finding is a global loss of methylation observed in breast cancer cases compared with controls, with no individual CpG sites passing validation across studies. In contrast, a more successful approach has been the identification of EWAS signatures of cancer risk factors such as smoking, body mass index, age and alcohol use with numerous validated CpG sites. These signatures may be used as a molecular test to quantify cancer risk associated with these factors. It is clear from the larger EWAS of risk exposures that similar-sized large collaborative studies may be needed to robustly identify DNA methylation signatures of breast cancer risk.

Keywords: DNA methylation; EWAS; breast cancer risk; epigenetics; epigenome-wide association study.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest Statement The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Similar articles

  • Ten Years of EWAS.
    Wei S, Tao J, Xu J, Chen X, Wang Z, Zhang N, Zuo L, Jia Z, Chen H, Sun H, Yan Y, Zhang M, Lv H, Kong F, Duan L, Ma Y, Liao M, Xu L, Feng R, Liu G, Project TE, Jiang Y. Wei S, et al. Adv Sci (Weinh). 2021 Oct;8(20):e2100727. doi: 10.1002/advs.202100727. Epub 2021 Aug 11. Adv Sci (Weinh). 2021. PMID: 34382344 Free PMC article. Review.
  • Linking Prenatal Environmental Exposures to Lifetime Health with Epigenome-Wide Association Studies: State-of-the-Science Review and Future Recommendations.
    Bakulski KM, Blostein F, London SJ. Bakulski KM, et al. Environ Health Perspect. 2023 Dec;131(12):126001. doi: 10.1289/EHP12956. Epub 2023 Dec 4. Environ Health Perspect. 2023. PMID: 38048101 Free PMC article. Review.
  • Epigenome-Wide DNA Methylation Association Analysis Identified Novel Loci in Peripheral Cells for Alcohol Consumption Among European American Male Veterans.
    Xu K, Montalvo-Ortiz JL, Zhang X, Southwick SM, Krystal JH, Pietrzak RH, Gelernter J. Xu K, et al. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2019 Oct;43(10):2111-2121. doi: 10.1111/acer.14168. Epub 2019 Aug 30. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2019. PMID: 31386212 Free PMC article.
  • DNA methylation in childhood asthma: an epigenome-wide meta-analysis.
    Xu CJ, Söderhäll C, Bustamante M, Baïz N, Gruzieva O, Gehring U, Mason D, Chatzi L, Basterrechea M, Llop S, Torrent M, Forastiere F, Fantini MP, Carlsen KCL, Haahtela T, Morin A, Kerkhof M, Merid SK, van Rijkom B, Jankipersadsing SA, Bonder MJ, Ballereau S, Vermeulen CJ, Aguirre-Gamboa R, de Jongste JC, Smit HA, Kumar A, Pershagen G, Guerra S, Garcia-Aymerich J, Greco D, Reinius L, McEachan RRC, Azad R, Hovland V, Mowinckel P, Alenius H, Fyhrquist N, Lemonnier N, Pellet J, Auffray C; BIOS Consortium; van der Vlies P, van Diemen CC, Li Y, Wijmenga C, Netea MG, Moffatt MF, Cookson WOCM, Anto JM, Bousquet J, Laatikainen T, Laprise C, Carlsen KH, Gori D, Porta D, Iñiguez C, Bilbao JR, Kogevinas M, Wright J, Brunekreef B, Kere J, Nawijn MC, Annesi-Maesano I, Sunyer J, Melén E, Koppelman GH. Xu CJ, et al. Lancet Respir Med. 2018 May;6(5):379-388. doi: 10.1016/S2213-2600(18)30052-3. Epub 2018 Feb 26. Lancet Respir Med. 2018. PMID: 29496485
  • Epigenome-wide association study reveals decreased average methylation levels years before breast cancer diagnosis.
    van Veldhoven K, Polidoro S, Baglietto L, Severi G, Sacerdote C, Panico S, Mattiello A, Palli D, Masala G, Krogh V, Agnoli C, Tumino R, Frasca G, Flower K, Curry E, Orr N, Tomczyk K, Jones ME, Ashworth A, Swerdlow A, Chadeau-Hyam M, Lund E, Garcia-Closas M, Sandanger TM, Flanagan JM, Vineis P. van Veldhoven K, et al. Clin Epigenetics. 2015 Aug 4;7(1):67. doi: 10.1186/s13148-015-0104-2. eCollection 2015. Clin Epigenetics. 2015. PMID: 26244061 Free PMC article.
See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Pashayan N, Pharoah P. Personalized Medicine. 2012;9:451–455. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Garcia-Closas M, Gunsoy NB, Chatterjee N. Journal of the National Cancer Institute. 2014;106 dju305. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Anjum S, Fourkala EO, Zikan M, Wong A, Gentry-Maharaj A, Jones A, Hardy R, Cibula D, Kuh D, Jacobs IJ, Teschendorff AE, et al. Genome Medicine. 2014;6:47. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Brennan K, Flanagan JM. Cancer Prevention Research. 2012;5:1345–1357. - PubMed
    1. Brennan K, Flanagan JM. Methods in Molecular Biology. 2012;863:439–465. - PubMed
-