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Family history and risk of pregnancy-associated breast cancer (PABC)

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

Abstract

The risk of breast cancer is at least two-fold increased in young women with a family history of breast cancer. Pregnancy has a dual effect on breast cancer risk; a short-term increase followed by a long-term protection. We investigated if the risk of breast cancer during and within 10 years following pregnancy is affected by a family history of breast cancer. We followed a cohort of women aged 15–44 years between 1963 and 2009 identified in Swedish population-based registers. Family history was defined as having a mother or sister with breast cancer. We estimated incidence rate ratios of breast cancer during pregnancy and time intervals up to 10 years post-delivery, with a focus on pregnancy-associated breast cancer (PABC), defined as breast cancer during pregnancy or within 2 years post-delivery. In 3,452,506 women, there were 15,548 cases of breast cancer (1208 were PABC). Compared to nulliparous women, the risk of breast cancer was decreased during pregnancy, similar during first year and increased during second year post-delivery. The pattern was similar in women with or without family history of breast cancer. A peak in risk was observed 5–6 years following the first birth regardless of family history. After a second birth, this peak was only present in women with a family history. Our results indicate that women with a family history of breast cancer do not have a different breast cancer risk during and within 10 years following pregnancy compared to women without a family history.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a grant from Susan G. Komen for the Cure (Grant number KG 100116).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

The study was approved by the Ethical Review Board at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden. For this type of study formal consent is not required.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, P.O. Box 281, SE-17177, Stockholm, Sweden

    Anna L. V. Johansson, Therese M.-L. Andersson, Paul W. Dickman & Mats Lambe

  2. Department of Molecular, Cell and Cancer Biology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA

    Chung-Cheng Hsieh

  3. Clinical Epidemiology Unit, Department of Medicine Solna, Karolinska University Hospital, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

    Sven Cnattingius

  4. Regional Cancer Centre, Uppsala, Sweden

    Mats Lambe

Authors
  1. Anna L. V. Johansson
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  2. Therese M.-L. Andersson
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  3. Chung-Cheng Hsieh
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  4. Sven Cnattingius
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  5. Paul W. Dickman
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  6. Mats Lambe
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anna L. V. Johansson.

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Johansson, A.L.V., Andersson, T.ML., Hsieh, CC. et al. Family history and risk of pregnancy-associated breast cancer (PABC). Breast Cancer Res Treat 151, 209–217 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-015-3369-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-015-3369-4

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