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Parental age at delivery and incidence of breast cancer: a prospective cohort study

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

Abstract

Background

Studies on parental age at delivery in relation to breast cancer risk have had mixed results, but prospective data are limited. No study has explored the associations with subtypes of breast cancer defined by hormonal receptor status.

Methods

109,773 women in the Nurses’ Health Study were followed from 1976 to 2002. We used Cox proportional hazards model to examine the association between parental age at delivery and daughters’ risk of breast cancer.

Results

6,827 incident cases of invasive breast cancer occurred in this cohort during 2,581,098 person-years. Adjusting for other early life exposures and family history of breast cancer, the hazard ratio for breast cancer in women born to mothers aged 21–25, 26–30, 31–35, and ≥36 years was, respectively, 1.08 (95% CI: 0.99–1.18), 1.12 (95% CI: 1.03–1.23), 1.17 (95% CI: 1.06–1.29), and 1.12 (95% CI: 1.01–1.25), compared to women born to mothers aged ≤20 years (P for trend = 0.008). Similarly, advanced paternal age was associated with increased incidence of breast cancer (P for trend = 0.03), but the association disappeared when conditioning on maternal age. The positive association between maternal age and incidence of breast cancer was stronger for estrogen receptor-positive and progesterone receptor-positive tumors (P for trend = 0.003) than for tumors with both receptors negative (P for trend = 0.78), and was more consistent among postmenopausal women, women without a family history and women who were first born.

Conclusion

Our findings support a modest positive association between maternal age and daughter’s risk of breast cancer, possibly mediated by hormonal factors.

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Abbreviations

ER+:

Estrogen receptor positive

ER−:

Estrogen receptor negative

PR+:

Progesterone receptor positive

PR−:

Progesterone receptor negative

NHS:

Nurses’ Health Study

NHSII:

Nurses’ Health Study II

OC:

Oral contraceptive

BMI:

Body mass index

PLR:

Polychotomous logistic regression

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Acknowledgements

The Nurses’ Health Study is supported by grant CA87969 from the National Cancer Institute, National Institute of Health.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Obstetrics and Gynecology Epidemiology Center, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 221 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA, 02115, USA

    Fei Xue & Karin B. Michels

  2. Channing Laboratory, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Graham A. Colditz, Walter C. Willett, Bernard A. Rosner & Karin B. Michels

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

    Fei Xue, Graham A. Colditz, Walter C. Willett, Bernard A. Rosner & Karin B. Michels

  4. Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA

    Walter C. Willett

  5. Department of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA

    Bernard A. Rosner

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  1. Fei Xue
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  2. Graham A. Colditz
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  3. Walter C. Willett
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  4. Bernard A. Rosner
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  5. Karin B. Michels
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Correspondence to Fei Xue.

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Xue, F., Colditz, G.A., Willett, W.C. et al. Parental age at delivery and incidence of breast cancer: a prospective cohort study. Breast Cancer Res Treat 104, 331–340 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-006-9424-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-006-9424-4

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