Genetic Variants and Gene-Environment Interactions in Relation to Breast Cancer Incidence in African-American Women

Gene PolymorphismsThe purpose of this project in the Black Women’s Health Study (BWHS) is to identify genetic variants associated with breast cancer in African American women by a dense set of tag SNPs in each of the loci that have been associated with breast cancer in European or Asian ancestry women.  This work was begun under a grant from the National Cancer Institute, under which the first group of loci identified in GWAS were fine-mapped.  Since then, meta-analyses of tens of thousands of cases have led to the identification of additional regions, which are being fine-mapped in African American women under this new grant from the Komen Foundation.  In addition, we will examine whether the effects of non-genetic risk factors (termed “environmental factors”) differ according to host susceptibility as measured by genotype.