title: Combined effect of menopause age and genotype on occurrence of breast cancer risk in Pakistani population.
abstract: Cancer incidences and mortality rates are rapidly increasing and breast cancer is among the most frequent malignancy experienced in women worldwide. The occurrence of breast cancer could be associated with various social, cultural, environmental, life-style, hormonal and genetic factors.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To establish if PvuII and XbaI polymorphisms of estrogen receptor alpha would make Pakistani women more susceptible to breast cancer. Furthermore, association between breast cancer and various factors was also explored to establish the contributing factors in breast cancer in Pakistani population.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two hundred samples, aged 15-65 years, consisting of 100 breast cancer patients and 100 control samples were ascertained for this case-control study in order to evaluate the factors related to disease incidence. 5-7 ml of blood sample of each participating women in the study was collected and analyzed for polymorphisms of PvuII and XbaI using PCR-RFLP method.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The menopause had strong influence on incidences of cancer with ca 18-fold increase in risk of breast cancer in women with menopause compared with non-menopaused. Furthermore significant impact of menopause age (P<0.0001) was observed on the incidence of cancer, as high rate of cancer incidence was observed in patients with age between 36 and 45 years (P<0.0001). Similarly, the genotype XbaI had significant influence on the incidence of the disease with heterozygous genotype of XbaI was 45% higher than wild type in cancerous cases. The menopausal women having heterozygous and homozygous mutants of PvuII or XbaI genotypes were strongly correlated with breast cancer (P<0.01).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The polymorphism of genes involving estrogen-metabolizing pathway and estrogen receptor pathway may play an important role in the etiology of breast cancer in Pakistani women.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biotechnology, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Sadia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Javed
authors.forename: Muhammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ali
authors.forename: Sobia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sadia
authors.forename: Muhammad Assad
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Aslam
authors.forename: Ahmed Ijaz
authors.initials: AI
authors.lastname: Masood
authors.forename: Rehan Sadiq
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Shaikh
authors.forename: Ali H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Sayyed
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology* / Q000235:genetics; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D047628:Estrogen Receptor alpha / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D006579:Heterozygote; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008593:Menopause; D008875:Middle Aged; D010154:Pakistan; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D012307:Risk Factors; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D047628:Estrogen Receptor alpha