Brown Study Finds New Links Between Alcohol, Diet, and Breast Cancer
Tuesday, August 03, 2010
New research, released from Brown University and the University of California San Franciso, shows that diet and alcohol have a direct association with the genetic behavior of breast cancer DNA.
Researchers from Brown University and the University of California San Francisco have found that epigenetic changes to DNA in breast cancers are related to environmental risk factors and tumor size, providing a window into the severity of the disease. The study is published in today’s edition of PLoS Genetics. The researchers found that epigenetic profiles of tumors had a direct association with diet, alcohol, and tumor size.
The findings point to the emergence of new biomarkers that researchers hope will give a more detailed view of the environmental factors that contribute to tumor development and could, in the future, provide improvements in diagnostics and treatment decisions, as well as potentially more personalized recommendations to help prevent recurrence.
Brown authors comment
“We undertook this study to help illuminate how diet and environmental factors might contribute to differences observed among breast cancers,” said Brock Christensen of the Center for Environmental Health and Technology (CEHT) at Brown University and lead author of the report.
“By investigating epigenetic patterns in tumors from patients we have extensive lifestyle data on, we are helping to bridge the gap between environmental research and translational research.” said Karl Kelsey, professor of community health at Brown, director of CEHT, and a contributing author on the paper.
Epigenetics refers to the control of patterns of gene expression in cells, which give rise to the necessary differences responsible for creating the complex and interacting tissues in the body.
Major implications
Breast cancer is the most common non-skin cancer among American women. The American Cancer Society’s estimates indicate that approximately 1.3 million new cases of invasive breast cancer were diagnosed globally in 2007 and nearly 500,000 died from the disease. Currently there are more than 2.5 million breast cancer survivors in the United States, and this population is expected to grow to 3.4 million by 2015.
Other authors on the paper include Carmen Marsit, assistant professor of Pathology Lab Medicine at Brown, and Andy Houseman, assistant professor of biostatistics at Brown.
The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health and a National Science Foundation Advance grant for career advancement through Brown awarded to Marsit.
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