Charting a Course toward Precision Cancer Prevention
, by DCEG Staff
By Stephen J. Chanock, M.D.
Today, in JAMA Oncology, with my colleagues in the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics and elsewhere, we published a study on a risk prediction model developed to assess the absolute risk of breast cancer in women of European background in the United States.
The model takes into effect risk factors that can be modified, like alcohol use, and those that can’t, like family history and the constellation of previously identified common genetic risk variants, or SNPs. This multifaceted model can more precisely identify the subsets of women at highest risk of breast cancer who would be most likely to benefit from alterations to those modifiable factors.
The extent to which this model can be used to influence the behavior of individual women at increased breast cancer risk requires further study, of course. But it raises an important issue that cancer researchers are increasingly beginning to explore. Instead of studies that focus on what proportion of cancers are due to genetic differences, we now understand that it might be more insightful to inquire how the risk of each type of cancer is influenced by genetic predisposition to both the cancer and the effects of environmental exposures.
Read the full NCI Cancer Currents blog post.
Reference: Maas P, Barrdahl M, Joshi AD, et al. Breast cancer risk From modifiable and nonmodifiable risk factors among white women in the United States. JAMA Oncol. Published online May 26, 2016. doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2016.1025
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