A genome-wide association study of breast and prostate cancer in the NHLBI's Framingham Heart Study

BACKGROUND: Breast and prostate cancer are two commonly diagnosed cancers in the United States. Prior work suggests that cancer causing genes and cancer susceptibility genes can be identified. METHODS: We conducted a genome-wide association study (Affymetrix 100K SNP GeneChip) of cancer in the community-based Framingham Heart Study. We report on 2 cancer traits – prostate cancer and breast cancer – in up to 1335 participants from 330 families (54% women, mean entry age 33 years). Multivariable-adjusted residuals, computed using Cox proportional hazards models, were tested for association with qualifying SNPs (70, 987 autosomal SNPs with genotypic call rate ≥80%, minor allele frequency ≥10%, Hardy-Weinberg test p ≥ 0.001) using generalized estimating equations (GEE) models and family based association tests (FBAT). RESULTS: There were 58 women with breast cancer and 59 men with prostate cancer. No SNP associations attained genome-wide significance. The top SNP associations in GEE models for each trait were as follows: breast cancer, rs2075555, p = 8.0 × 10(-8 )in COL1A1; and prostate cancer, rs9311171, p = 1.75 × 10(-6 )in CTDSPL. In analysis of selected candidate cancer susceptibility genes, two MSR1 SNPs (rs9325782, GEE p = 0.008 and rs2410373, FBAT p = 0.021) were associated with prostate cancer and three ERBB4 SNPs (rs905883 GEE p = 0.0002, rs7564590 GEE p = 0.003, rs7558615 GEE p = 0.0078) were associated with breast cancer. The previously reported risk SNP for prostate cancer, rs1447295, was not included on the 100K chip. Results of cancer phenotype-genotype associations for all autosomal SNPs are web posted at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/projects/gap/cgi-bin/study.cgi?id=phs000007. CONCLUSION: Although no association attained genome-wide significance, several interesting associations emerged for breast and prostate cancer. These findings can serve as a resource for replication in other populations to identify novel biologic pathways contributing to cancer susceptibility.