Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Immunoassay and Nb2 lymphoma bioassay prolactin levels and mammographic density in premenopausal and postmenopausal women the Nurses’ Health Studies

  • Epidemiology
  • Published:
Breast Cancer Research and Treatment Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Higher circulating prolactin levels have been associated with higher percent mammographic density among postmenopausal women in some, but not all studies. However, few studies have examined associations with dense area and non-dense breast area breast or considered associations with prolactin Nb2 lymphoma cell bioassay levels. We conducted a cross-sectional study among 1,124 premenopausal and 890 postmenopausal women who were controls in breast cancer case–control studies nested in the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS) and NHSII. Participants provided blood samples in 1989–1990 (NHS) or 1996–1999 (NHSII) and mammograms were obtained from around the time of blood draw. Multivariable linear models were used to assess the associations between prolactin levels (measured by immunoassay or bioassay) with percent density, dense area, and non-dense area. Among 1,124 premenopausal women, percent density, dense area, and non-dense area were not associated with prolactin immunoassay levels in multivariable models (p trends = 0.10, 0.18, and 0.69, respectively). Among 890 postmenopausal women, those with prolactin immunoassay levels in the highest versus lowest quartile had modestly, though significantly, higher percent density (difference = 3.01 percentage points, 95 % CI 0.22, 5.80) as well as lower non-dense area (p trend = 0.02). Among women with both immunoassay and bioassay levels, there were no consistent differences in the associations with percent density between bioassay and immunoassay levels. Postmenopausal women with prolactin immunoassay levels in the highest quartile had significantly higher percent density as well as lower non-dense area compared to those in the lowest quartile. Future studies should examine the underlying biologic mechanisms, particularly for non-dense area.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Abbreviations

NHS:

Nurses’ Health Study

BMI:

Body mass index

BBD:

Benign breast disease

CV:

Coefficient of variation

ICC:

Intraclass correlation coefficient

References

  1. Byrne C et al (1995) Mammographic features and breast cancer risk: effects with time, age, and menopause status. J Natl Cancer Inst 87(21):1622–1629

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Boyd NF et al (1995) Quantitative classification of mammographic densities and breast cancer risk: results from the Canadian National Breast Screening Study. J Natl Cancer Inst 87(9):670–675

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Tworoger SS, Hankinson SE (2008) Prolactin and breast cancer etiology: an epidemiologic perspective. J Mammary Gland Biol Neoplasia 13(1):41–53

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Boyd NF et al (2002) The association of breast mitogens with mammographic densities. Br J Cancer 87(8):876–882

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Greendale GA et al (2007) Serum prolactin levels are positively associated with mammographic density in postmenopausal women. Breast Cancer Res Treat 105(3):337–346

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Bremnes Y et al (2007) Endogenous sex hormones, prolactin and mammographic density in postmenopausal Norwegian women. Int J Cancer 121(11):2506–2511

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Maskarinec G et al (2007) IGF-I and mammographic density in four geographic locations: a pooled analysis. Int J Cancer 121(8):1786–1792

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Tamimi RM et al (2005) Endogenous sex hormone levels and mammographic density among postmenopausal women. Cancer Epidemiol Biomark Prev. 14(11 Pt 1):2641–2647

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Walker K et al (2009) Premenopausal mammographic density in relation to cyclic variations in endogenous sex hormone levels, prolactin, and insulin-like growth factors. Cancer Res 69(16):6490–6499

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. McCormack VA et al (2009) Sex steroids, growth factors and mammographic density: a cross-sectional study of UK postmenopausal Caucasian and Afro-Caribbean women. Breast Cancer Res 11(3):R38

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Pettersson A et al (2011) Nondense mammographic area and risk of breast cancer. Breast Cancer Res 13(5):R100

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Lokate M et al (2011) Mammographic density and breast cancer risk: the role of the fat surrounding the fibroglandular tissue. Breast Cancer Res 13(5):R103. doi:10.1186/bcr3044

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Hoffmann T, Penel C, Ronin C (1993) Glycosylation of human prolactin regulates hormone bioactivity and metabolic clearance. J Endocrinol Invest 16(10):807–816

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Sinha YN (1995) Structural variants of prolactin: occurrence and physiological significance. Endocr Rev 16(3):354–369

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Gout PW, Beer CT, Noble RL (1980) Prolactin-stimulated growth of cell cultures established from malignant Nb rat lymphomas. Cancer Res 40(7):2433–2436

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Tworoger, S.S., et al., (2014) Bioactive prolactin levels and risk of breast cancer: a nested case–control study. Cancer Epidemiol Biomark Prev

  17. Schernhammer ES et al (2005) Circulating levels of insulin-like growth factors, their binding proteins, and breast cancer risk. Cancer Epidemiol Biomark Prev 14(3):699–704

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Tworoger SS, Sluss P, Hankinson SE (2006) Association between plasma prolactin concentrations and risk of breast cancer among predominately premenopausal women. Cancer Res 66(4):2476–2482

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Schernhammer ES, Hankinson SE (2009) Urinary melatonin levels and postmenopausal breast cancer risk in the Nurses’ Health Study cohort. Cancer Epidemiol Biomark Prev 18(1):74–79

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Hankinson SE et al (1998) Circulating concentrations of insulin-like growth factor-I and risk of breast cancer. Lancet 351(9113):1393–1396

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Schernhammer ES et al (2006) Insulin-like growth factor-I, its binding proteins (IGFBP-1 and IGFBP-3), and growth hormone and breast cancer risk in The Nurses Health Study II. Endocr Relat Cancer 13(2):583–592

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Rosner B (1983) Percentage points for a generalized ESD many-outlier procedure. Technometrics 25:165–172

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Clevenger CV et al (1995) Expression of prolactin and prolactin receptor in human breast carcinoma. Evidence for an autocrine/paracrine loop. Am J Pathol 146(3):695–705

    CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. Rosner B et al (2008) Determination of blood pressure percentiles in normal-weight children: some methodological issues. Am J Epidemiol 167(6):653–666

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. Tamimi RM et al (2005) Endogenous sex hormone levels and mammographic density among postmenopausal women. Cancer Epidemiol Biomark Prev 14(11):2641–2647

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  26. Emerman JT et al (1985) Elevated growth hormone levels in sera from breast cancer patients. Horm Metab Res 17(8):421–424

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Maddox PR, Jones DL, Mansel RE (1992) Prolactin and total lactogenic hormone measured by microbioassay and immunoassay in breast cancer. Br J Cancer 65(3):456–460

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Missmer SA et al (2006) Reproducibility of plasma steroid hormones, prolactin, and insulin-like growth factor levels among premenopausal women over a 2- to 3-year period. Cancer Epidemiol Biomark Prev 15(5):972–978

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  29. Hankinson SE et al (1995) Reproducibility of plasma hormone levels in postmenopausal women over a 2-3-year period. Cancer Epidemiol Biomark Prev 4(6):649–654

    CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Conflict of interest

None of the authors has a competing interest to declare.

Funding/support

This study was supported by research grants R01 CA138580, CA49449, CA67262, CA50385, CA131332, CA124865, P01 CA87969, T32 CA09001, R25 CA098566, and the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. We would like to thank the participants of the Nurses’ Health Study and Nurses’ Health Study II for their continuing contributions. We thank the following state cancer registries for their help: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, NE, NH, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, TN, TX, VA, WA, WY.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, 181 Longwood Ave 3rd Floor, Boston, MA, 02115, USA

    Megan S. Rice, Shelley S. Tworoger, Kimberly A. Bertrand, Susan E. Hankinson, Bernard A. Rosner & Rulla M. Tamimi

  2. Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA

    Megan S. Rice, Shelley S. Tworoger, Kimberly A. Bertrand, Susan E. Hankinson & Rulla M. Tamimi

  3. Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA

    Susan E. Hankinson

  4. Department of Pathology, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA

    Yvonne B. Feeney

  5. Department of Pathology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA

    Charles V. Clevenger

Authors
  1. Megan S. Rice
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Shelley S. Tworoger
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Kimberly A. Bertrand
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Susan E. Hankinson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Bernard A. Rosner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Yvonne B. Feeney
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Charles V. Clevenger
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Rulla M. Tamimi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Megan S. Rice.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Rice, M.S., Tworoger, S.S., Bertrand, K.A. et al. Immunoassay and Nb2 lymphoma bioassay prolactin levels and mammographic density in premenopausal and postmenopausal women the Nurses’ Health Studies. Breast Cancer Res Treat 149, 245–253 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-014-3232-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-014-3232-z

Keywords

Search

Navigation