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Family history of malignancies and risk of breast cancer: prospective data from the Shanghai women’s health study

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Abstract

A population-based cohort study was conducted in Shanghai, China, to investigate the relationship between family cancer history in first-degree relatives and risk of breast cancer. A total of 570 newly diagnosed breast cancer patients were identified from the cohort of 73,222 women during the follow-up period. Breast cancer risk was elevated (RR = 1.74, 95% CI: 1.10–2.73) for those with a family history of breast cancer and the risk was stronger for women who were younger than 55 years (RR = 2.07, 95% CI: 1.17–3.64). In addition, a significantly increased risk was observed for women with a family history of leukemia (RR = 2.06; 95% CI: 1.02–4.15) and among younger women, those who reported having a family history of any cancer (RR = 1.41, 95% CI: 1.10–1.82), lung cancer (RR = 1.72, 95% CI: 1.12–2.65), and esophageal cancer (RR = 2.99, 95% CI: 1.62–5.51). This cohort study suggests that, as previously observed in high risk populations, family history plays an important role in breast cancer also in a low risk population. The link between breast cancer risk and family history of cancers of the lung and esophagus, as well as leukemia, warrants further investigation.

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Acknowledgment

This research was supported by National Institutes of Health research grant R01 CA70867 and by Intramural Research Program contract N02 CP1101066. The authors express their appreciation to Shanghai residents who participated in the study and thank the research staff of the Shanghai Women’s Health Study for their dedication and hard work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Epidemiology and Public Health, Yale University, 60 College Street, LEPH 440, P.O. Box 208034, New Haven, CT, 06520-8034, USA

    Briseis A. Kilfoy & Yawei Zhang

  2. Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Rockville, MD, USA

    Briseis A. Kilfoy, Yawei Zhang, Bu-Tian Ji, Nathaniel Rothman & Wong-Ho Chow

  3. Center for Health Services Research, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA

    Xiao-Ou Shu, Gong Yang & Wei Zheng

  4. Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt Epidemiology Center and Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA

    Xiao-Ou Shu, Gong Yang & Wei Zheng

  5. Department of Epidemiology, Shanghai Cancer Institute, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China

    Yu-Tang Gao & Hong Lan Li

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  1. Briseis A. Kilfoy
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  2. Yawei Zhang
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  9. Wong-Ho Chow
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  10. Wei Zheng
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Correspondence to Yawei Zhang.

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Kilfoy, B.A., Zhang, Y., Shu, XO. et al. Family history of malignancies and risk of breast cancer: prospective data from the Shanghai women’s health study. Cancer Causes Control 19, 1139–1145 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-008-9181-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-008-9181-2

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