Top

Cancer Causes & Control

Published in:

01-12-2007 | Original Paper

Qualitative age interactions (or effect modification) suggest different cancer pathways for early-onset and late-onset breast cancers

Authors: William F. Anderson, Bingshu E. Chen, Louise A. Brinton, Susan S. Devesa

Published in: Cancer Causes & Control | Issue 10/2007

Abstract

Background

Prior to 1999–2000, breast cancer incidence rates had risen for decades, though more among older than younger women.

Materials and methods

To further explore the impact of advancing age-at-diagnosis upon breast cancer incidence, we used the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program (1974–2003).

Results

Over time, we observed age interactions by tumor grade, stage, and race. For example, among women ages <40 years, high-grade lesions were more common than low-grade tumors for all time periods. Among women ages 40+ years, high-grade lesions were more common during early time periods then trend lines crossed, after which low-grade tumors were more common than high-grade lesions. Notably, the transition (crossover point) occurred earlier with advancing age-at-diagnosis.

Conclusion

The reversal (crossing) of incidence rates from high to low-grade tumors among women 40+ years is a qualitative age interaction, probably due to changing age-related risk factor and/or screening patterns, where mammography preferentially detected tumors of low malignant potential among older women. Though once thought to be rare or artifactual, qualitative age interactions suggest breast cancer heterogeneity. Indeed, if real, qualitative age interactions (effect modifications) imply different etiologic pathways for early-onset and late-onset types of breast cancer.

Ries LAG, Harkins D, Krapcho M, Mariotto A, Miller BA, Feuer EJ et al (2006) SEER Cancer Statistics Review, 1975–2003, National Cancer Institute, based on November 2005 SEER data submission, posted to the SEER web site, 2006

Howe HL, Wu X, Ries LA, Cokkinides V, Ahmed F, Jemal A et al (2006) Annual report to the nation on the status of cancer, 1975–2003, featuring cancer among U.S. Hispanic/Latino populations. Cancer 107(8):1711–1742PubMedCrossRef

Clarke CA, Glaser SL, Uratsu CS, Selby JV, Kushi LH, Herrinton LJ (2006) Recent declines in hormone therapy utilization and breast cancer incidence: clinical and population-based evidence. J Clin Oncol 24(33):e49–e50PubMedCrossRef

Jemal A, Siegel R, Ward E, Murray T, Xu J, Thun MJ (2007) Cancer statistics, 2007 CA Cancer. J Clin 57(1):43–66

Ravdin PM, Cronin KA, Howlader N, Berg CD, Chlebowski RT, Feuer EJ et al (2007) The decrease in breast-cancer incidence in 2003 in the United States. N Engl J Med 356(16):1670–1674PubMedCrossRef

Jemal A, Ward E, Thun MJ (2007) Recent trends in breast cancer incidence rates by age and tumor characteristics among U.S. women. Breast Cancer Res 9(3):R28PubMedCrossRef

Glass AG, Lacey JV Jr, Carreon JD, Hoover RN (2007) Breast cancer incidence, 1980 2006: combined roles of menopausal hormone therapy, screening mammography, and estrogen receptor status. J Natl Cancer Inst 99(15):1152–1161PubMedCrossRef

Anderson WF, Reiner AS, Matsuno RK, Pfeiffer RM (2007) Shifting breast cancer trends in the United States. J Clin Oncol EPub ahead of print

SEER (2006) Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program (http://www.seer.cancer.gov) SEER*Stat Database: Incidence-Connecticut Historical, Aug 1999 Sub (1935–1997), National Cancer Institute, DCCPS, Surveillance Research Program, Cancer Statistics Branch

10.

Fox MS (1979) On the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. JAMA 241(5):489–494PubMedCrossRef

11.

Adami H-O (1984) Breast cancer incidence and mortality. Aspects on aetiology, time trends and curability. Acta Chir Scand 519(Suppl):9–14

12.

Holford TR, Cronin KA, Mariotto AB, Feuer EJ (2006) Chapter4: changing patterns in breast cancer incidence trends. J Natl Cancer Inst Monogr 36:19–25PubMed

13.

Clemmesen J (1948) Carcinoma of the breast Br J Radiol 21(252):583–590CrossRefPubMed

14.

Lilienfeld AM, Johnson EA (1955) The age distribution in female breast and genital cancers. Cancer 8:875–882PubMedCrossRef

15.

Moolgavkar SH, Lee JA, Hade RD (1978) Comparison of age-specific mortality from breast cancer in males in the United States and Japan. J Natl Cancer Inst 60(6):1223–1225PubMed

16.

De Waard F (1979) Premenopausal and postmenopausal breast cancer: one disease or two? J Natl Cancer Inst 63(3):549–552PubMed

17.

SEER (2006) Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program (http://www.seer.cancer.gov) SEER*Stat Database: Incidence-SEER 9 Regs Public-use, Nov 2004 sub (1973–2003), National Cancer Institute, DCCPS, Surveillance Research Program, Cancer Statistics Branch, released April 2006, based on November 2005 submission

18.

Berg JW, Hutter RV (1995) Breast cancer Cancer 75(1 Suppl):257–269PubMedCrossRef

19.

SEER (2004) ICD-O-3 Coding materials [cited; Available from: http://seer.cancer.gov/icd-o-3/

20.

Tavassoli FA, Devilee P (eds) (2003) Pathology and genetics of tumours of the breast and female genital organs. IARC Press, Lyon

21.

Devesa SS, Donaldson J, Fears T (1995) Graphical presentation of trends in rates. Am J Epidemiol 141(4):300–304PubMedCrossRef

22.

McCullagh P, Nelder JA (1989) Generalized linear models. Chapman and Hall, New York

23.

Anderson WF, Matsuno RK, Sherman ME, Lissowska J, Gail MH, Brinton LA et al (2007) Estimating age-specific breast cancer risks: a descriptive tool to identify age interactions. Cancer Causes Control 18:439–447PubMedCrossRef

24.

Gail M, Simon R (1985) Testing for qualitative interactions between treatment effects and patient subsets. Biometrics 41(2):361–372PubMedCrossRef

25.

Anderson WF, Chatterjee N, Ershler WB, Brawley OW (2002) Estrogen receptor breast cancer phenotypes in the surveillance, epidemiology, and end results database. Breast Cancer Res Treat 76(1):27–36PubMedCrossRef

26.

Chu KC, Tarone RE, Kessler LG, Ries LAG, Hankey BF, Miller BA et al (1996) Recent trends in U. S. breast cancer incidence, survival, and mortality rates. J Natl Cancer Inst 88(21):1571–1579PubMedCrossRef

27.

Anderson WF, Jatoi I, Devesa SS (2006) Assessing the impact of screening mammography: breast cancer incidence and mortality rates in Connecticut (1943–2002). Breast Cancer Res Treat 99:333–340PubMedCrossRef

28.

Last JM (1995) A dictionary of epidemiology, 3rd edn. Oxford University Press, Oxford

29.

Pike MC, Krailo MD, Henderson BE, Casagrande JT, Hoel DG (1983) ‘Hormonal’ risk factors, ‘breast tissue age’ and the age-incidence of breast cancer. Nature 303(5920):767–770PubMedCrossRef

30.

Colditz GA, Rosner BA (2006) What can be learnt from models of incidence rates? Breast Cancer Res 8(3):208PubMedCrossRef

31.

Thomas DB (1993) Breast cancer in men Epidemiol Rev 15(1):220–231PubMed

32.

Anderson WF, Matsuno RK (2006) Breast cancer heterogeneity: a mixture of at least two main types? J Natl Cancer Inst 98(14):948–951PubMedCrossRef

33.

Narod SA, Dube MP (2001) Biologic characteristics of interval and screen-detected breast cancers. J Natl Cancer Inst 93(2):151–152PubMedCrossRef

34.

Swan J, Breen N, Coates RJ, Rimer BK, Lee NC (2003) Progress in cancer screening practices in the United States: results from the 2000 National Health Interview Survey. Cancer 97(6):1528–1540PubMedCrossRef

35.

Anderson WF, Jatoi I, Devesa SS (2005) Distinct breast cancer incidence and prognostic patterns in the NCI’s SEER program: suggesting a possible link between etiology and outcome. Breast Cancer Res Treat 90(2):127–137PubMedCrossRef

36.

Anderson WF, Pfeiffer RM, Dores GM, Sherman ME (2006) Comparison of age frequency distribution patterns for different histopathologic types of breast carcinoma. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 15(10):1899–1905PubMedCrossRef

37.

Perou CM, Sorlie T, Eisen MB, van de Rijn M, Jeffrey SS, Rees CA et al (2000) Molecular portraits of human breast tumours. Nature 406(6797):747–752PubMedCrossRef

38.

Sorlie T, Tibshirani R, Parker J, Hastie T, Marron JS, Nobel A et al (2003) Repeated observation of breast tumor subtypes in independent gene expression data sets. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 100(14):8418–8423PubMedCrossRef

39.

Burstein HJ (2005) The distinctive nature of HER2-positive breast cancers. N Engl J Med 353(16):1652–1654PubMedCrossRef

40.

Peto R (1982) Statistical aspects of cancer trials. Chapman and Hall, London

41.

Janerich DT, Hoff MB (1982) Evidence for a crossover in breast cancer risk factors. Am J Epidemiol 116(5):737–742PubMed

42.

Lubin JH, Burns PE, Blot WJ, Lees AW, May C, Morris LE et al (1982) Risk factors for breast cancer in women in northern Alberta, Canada, as related to age at diagnosis. J Natl Cancer Inst 68(2):211–217PubMed

43.

Schedin P (2006) Pregnancy-associated breast cancer and metastasis. Nat Rev Cancer 6(4):281–291PubMedCrossRef

44.

Cleary MP, Maihle NJ (1997) The role of body mass index in the relative risk of developing premenopausal versus postmenopausal breast cancer. Proc Soc Exp Biol Med 216(1):28–43PubMed

45.

Colditz GA, Rosner B (2000) Cumulative risk of breast cancer to age 70 years according to risk factor status: data from the Nurses’ health study. Am J Epidemiol 152(10):950–964PubMedCrossRef

46.

Althuis MD, Fergenbaum JH, Garcia-Closas M, Brinton LA, Madigan MP, Sherman ME (2004) Etiology of hormone receptor-defined breast cancer: a systematic review of the literature. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 13(10):1558–1568PubMed

47.

Hankey BF, Miller B, Curtis R, Kosary C (1994) Trends in breast cancer in younger women in contrast to older women. J Natl Cancer Inst Monogr 16:7–14PubMed

48.

Brinton LA, Benichou J, Gammon MD, Brogan DR, Coates R, Schoenberg JB (1997) Ethnicity and variation in breast cancer incidence. Int J Cancer 73(3):349–355PubMedCrossRef

49.

Hilsenbeck SG, Ravdin PM, de Moor CA, Chamness GC, Osborne CK, Clark GM (1998) Time-dependence of hazard ratios for prognostic factors in primary breast cancer. Breast Cancer Res Treat 52:227–237PubMedCrossRef

Title: Qualitative age interactions (or effect modification) suggest different cancer pathways for early-onset and late-onset breast cancers
Authors: William F. Anderson
Bingshu E. Chen
Louise A. Brinton
Susan S. Devesa
Publication date: 01-12-2007
Publisher: Springer Netherlands
Published in: Cancer Causes & Control / Issue 10/2007
Print ISSN: 0957-5243
Electronic ISSN: 1573-7225
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-007-9057-x

Webinar | 19-02-2024 | 17:30 (CET)

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on antibody–drug conjugates in cancer

Watch now

Antibody–drug conjugates (ADCs) are novel agents that have shown promise across multiple tumor types. Explore the current landscape of ADCs in breast and lung cancer with our experts, and gain insights into the mechanism of action, key clinical trials data, existing challenges, and future directions.

Dr. Véronique Diéras

Prof. Fabrice Barlesi

Developed by: Springer Medicine

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on medication adherence

Springer Medicine

Abstract

Background

Materials and methods

Results

Conclusion

Please log in to get access to this content

Other articles of this Issue 10/2007

Racial and ethnic disparities in cervical cancer incidence rates in the United States, 1992−2003

A population-based study of survival in patients with secondary myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS): impact of type and treatment of primary cancers

A prospective study on dietary fat and incidence of prostate cancer (Malmö, Sweden)

The MTHFR 677C→T polymorphism and risk of prostate cancer: results from the CAPS study

Boron intake and prostate cancer risk

Use of antidepressants and risk of lung cancer

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on antibody–drug conjugates in cancer