title: High Prevalence of the BIM Deletion Polymorphism in Young Female Breast Cancer in an East Asian Country.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  A rapid surge of female breast cancer has been observed in young women in several East Asian countries. The BIM deletion polymorphism, which confers cell resistance to apoptosis, was recently found exclusively in East Asian people with prevalence rate of 12%. We aimed to evaluate the possible role of this genetic alteration in carcinogenesis of breast cancer in East Asians.
  
  
  METHODS
  Female healthy volunteers (n = 307), patients in one consecutive stage I-III breast cancer cohort (n = 692) and one metastatic breast cancer cohort (n = 189) were evaluated. BIM wild-type and deletion alleles were separately genotyped in genomic DNAs.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Both cancer cohorts consistently showed inverse associations between the BIM deletion polymorphism and patient age (≤35 y vs. 36-50 y vs. >50 y: 29% vs. 22% vs. 15%, P = 0.006 in the consecutive cohort, and 40% vs. 23% vs. 13%, P = 0.023 in the metastatic cohort). In healthy volunteers, the frequencies of the BIM deletion polymorphism were similar (13%-14%) in all age groups. Further analyses indicated that the BIM deletion polymorphism was not associated with specific clinicopathologic features, but it was associated with poor overall survival (adjusted hazard ratio 1.71) in the consecutive cohort.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  BIM deletion polymorphism may be involved in the tumorigenesis of the early-onset breast cancer among East Asians.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan; Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Ching-Hung
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Graduate Institute of Life Sciences, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan; Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan; School of Public Health, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chen-Yang
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Jih-Hsiang
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chiun-Sheng
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan; Graduate Institute of Oncology and Cancer Research Centre, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chih-Hsin
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Wen-Hung
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Kuo
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Dwan-Ying
authors.initials: DY
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chia-Ni
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: Hsiung
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Kuan-Ting
authors.initials: KT
authors.lastname: Kuo
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Wei-Wu
authors.initials: WW
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: I-Chun
authors.initials: IC
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Pei-Fang
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan; Graduate Institute of Oncology and Cancer Research Centre, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Sung-Hsin
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Kuo
authors.affiliation: Genomics Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chien-Jen
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan; Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Yen-Shen
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan; Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan; Graduate Institute of Oncology and Cancer Research Centre, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Ann-Lii
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Cheng
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D051017:Apoptosis Regulatory Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D044466:Asian People / Q000235:genetics*; D000072224:Bcl-2-Like Protein 11; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005202:Asia, Eastern / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006801:Humans; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D008875:Middle Aged; D060787:Neoplasm Grading; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D015995:Prevalence; D011379:Prognosis; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D017384:Sequence Deletion; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D051017:Apoptosis Regulatory Proteins; C000606775:BCL2L11 protein, human; D000072224:Bcl-2-Like Protein 11; D008565:Membrane Proteins; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins