title: A prospective study of XRCC1 haplotypes and their interaction with plasma carotenoids on breast cancer risk.
abstract: The XRCC1 protein is involved in the base excision repair pathway through interactions with other proteins. Polymorphisms in the XRCC1 gene may lead to variation in repair proficiency and confer inherited predisposition to cancer. We prospectively assessed the associations between polymorphisms and haplotypes in XRCC1 and breast cancer risk in a nested case-control study within the Nurses' Health Study (incident cases, n = 1004; controls, n = 1385). We further investigated gene-environment interactions between the XRCC1 variations and plasma carotenoids on breast cancer risk. We genotyped four haplotype-tagging single nucleotide polymorphisms (Arg(194)Trp, C26602T, Arg(399)Gln, and Gln(632)Gln) in the XRCC1 gene. Five common haplotypes accounted for 99% of the chromosomes in the present study population of mostly Caucasian women. We observed a marginally significant reduction in the risk of breast cancer among (194)Trp carriers. As compared with no-carriers, women with at least one (194)Trp allele had a multivariate odds ratio of 0.79 (95% of the confidence interval, 0.60-1.04). The inferred haplotype harboring the (194)Trp allele was more common in controls than in cases (6.6 versus 5.3%, P = 0.07). We observed that the Arg(194)Trp modified the inverse associations of plasma alpha-carotene level (P, ordinal test for interaction = 0.02) and plasma beta-carotene level (P, ordinal test for interaction = 0.003) with breast cancer risk. No suggestion of an interaction was observed between the Arg(194)Trp and cigarette smoking. Our results suggest an inverse association between XRCC1 (194)Trp allele and breast cancer risk. The findings of the effect modification of the Arg(194)Trp on the relations of plasma alpha- and beta-carotene levels with breast cancer risk suggest a potential protective effect of carotenoids in breast carcinogenesis by preventing oxidative DNA damage.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutrition, Harvard Center for Cancer Prevention, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA. jhan@hsph.harvard.edu
authors.forename: Jiali
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: Susan E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Hankinson
authors.forename: Immaculata
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: De Vivo
authors.forename: Donna
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Spiegelman
authors.forename: Rulla M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Tamimi
authors.forename: Harvey W
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Mohrenweiser
authors.forename: Graham A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Colditz
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Hunter
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000209:etiology / Q000235:genetics*; D002338:Carotenoids / Q000097:blood*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006239:Haplotypes; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects; D000076105:X-ray Repair Cross Complementing Protein 1; D019207:beta Carotene / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D000076105:X-ray Repair Cross Complementing Protein 1; C000619371:XRCC1 protein, human; D019207:beta Carotene; D002338:Carotenoids; C041635:alpha-carotene