TY - JOUR
T1 - Free β-human chorionic gonadotropin, total human chorionic gonadotropin and maternal risk of breast cancer
AU - Toriola, Adetunji T.
AU - Tolockiene, Egle
AU - Schock, Helena
AU - Surcel, Helja Marja
AU - Zeleniuch-Jacquotte, Anne
AU - Wadell, Goran
AU - Toniolo, Paolo
AU - Lundin, Eva
AU - Grankvist, Kjell
AU - Lukanova, Annekatrin
PY - 2014/2
Y1 - 2014/2
N2 - Background: We investigated whether the free β-human chorionic gonadotropin (free β-hCG) would provide additional information to that provided by total hCG alone and thus be useful in future epidemiological studies relating hCG to maternal breast cancer risk. Materials & methods: Cases (n = 159) and controls (n = 286) were a subset of our previous study within the Northern Sweden Maternity Cohort on total hCG during primiparous pregnancy and breast cancer risk. Results: The associations between total hCG (hazard ratio: 0.79; 95% CI: 0.49-1.27), free β-hCG (hazard ratio: 0.85; 95% CI: 0.33-2.18) and maternal risk of breast cancer were very similar in all analyses and mutual adjustment for either one had minor effects on the risk estimates. Conclusion: In the absence of a reliable assay on intact hCG, total hCG alone can be used in epidemiological studies investigating hCG and breast cancer risk, as free β-hCG does not appear to provide any additional information.
AB - Background: We investigated whether the free β-human chorionic gonadotropin (free β-hCG) would provide additional information to that provided by total hCG alone and thus be useful in future epidemiological studies relating hCG to maternal breast cancer risk. Materials & methods: Cases (n = 159) and controls (n = 286) were a subset of our previous study within the Northern Sweden Maternity Cohort on total hCG during primiparous pregnancy and breast cancer risk. Results: The associations between total hCG (hazard ratio: 0.79; 95% CI: 0.49-1.27), free β-hCG (hazard ratio: 0.85; 95% CI: 0.33-2.18) and maternal risk of breast cancer were very similar in all analyses and mutual adjustment for either one had minor effects on the risk estimates. Conclusion: In the absence of a reliable assay on intact hCG, total hCG alone can be used in epidemiological studies investigating hCG and breast cancer risk, as free β-hCG does not appear to provide any additional information.
KW - Breast cancer
KW - Free β-human chorionic gonadotropin
KW - Human chorionic gonadotropin
KW - Nested case-control study
KW - Pregnancy
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84896832581&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.2217/fon.13.208
DO - 10.2217/fon.13.208
M3 - Article
C2 - 24559445
AN - SCOPUS:84896832581
SN - 1479-6694
VL - 10
SP - 377
EP - 384
JO - Future Oncology
JF - Future Oncology
IS - 3
ER -