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Chung FFL, Maldonado SG, Nemc A, Bouaoun L, Cahais V, Cuenin C, Salle A, Johnson T, Ergüner B, Laplana M, Datlinger P, Jeschke J, Weiderpass E, Kristensen V, Delaloge S, Fuks F, Risch A, Ghantous A, Plass C, Bock C, Kaaks R, Herceg Z. Buffy coat signatures of breast cancer risk in a prospective cohort study. Clin Epigenetics 2023; 15:102. [PMID: 37309009 PMCID: PMC10262593 DOI: 10.1186/s13148-023-01509-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/30/2023] [Accepted: 05/20/2023] [Indexed: 06/14/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Epigenetic alterations are a near-universal feature of human malignancy and have been detected in malignant cells as well as in easily accessible specimens such as blood and urine. These findings offer promising applications in cancer detection, subtyping, and treatment monitoring. However, much of the current evidence is based on findings in retrospective studies and may reflect epigenetic patterns that have already been influenced by the onset of the disease. METHODS Studying breast cancer, we established genome-scale DNA methylation profiles of prospectively collected buffy coat samples (n = 702) from a case-control study nested within the EPIC-Heidelberg cohort using reduced representation bisulphite sequencing (RRBS). RESULTS We observed cancer-specific DNA methylation events in buffy coat samples. Increased DNA methylation in genomic regions associated with SURF6 and REXO1/CTB31O20.3 was linked to the length of time to diagnosis in the prospectively collected buffy coat DNA from individuals who subsequently developed breast cancer. Using machine learning methods, we piloted a DNA methylation-based classifier that predicted case-control status in a held-out validation set with 76.5% accuracy, in some cases up to 15 years before clinical diagnosis of the disease. CONCLUSIONS Taken together, our findings suggest a model of gradual accumulation of cancer-associated DNA methylation patterns in peripheral blood, which may be detected long before clinical manifestation of cancer. Such changes may provide useful markers for risk stratification and, ultimately, personalized cancer prevention.
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Affiliation(s)
- Felicia Fei-Lei Chung
- International Agency for Research On Cancer (IARC), 25 avenue Tony Garnier, CS 90627, 69366, Lyon, France.
- Department of Medical Sciences, School of Medical and Life Sciences, Sunway University, 5, Jalan Universiti, Bandar Sunway, 47500, Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia.
| | | | - Amelie Nemc
- CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria
| | - Liacine Bouaoun
- International Agency for Research On Cancer (IARC), 25 avenue Tony Garnier, CS 90627, 69366, Lyon, France
| | - Vincent Cahais
- International Agency for Research On Cancer (IARC), 25 avenue Tony Garnier, CS 90627, 69366, Lyon, France
| | - Cyrille Cuenin
- International Agency for Research On Cancer (IARC), 25 avenue Tony Garnier, CS 90627, 69366, Lyon, France
| | - Aurelie Salle
- International Agency for Research On Cancer (IARC), 25 avenue Tony Garnier, CS 90627, 69366, Lyon, France
| | - Theron Johnson
- Division of Cancer Epidemiology, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Bekir Ergüner
- CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria
| | - Marina Laplana
- Division of Cancer Epigenomics, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany
- Department of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Lleida, IRBLleida, 25198, Lleida, Spain
| | - Paul Datlinger
- CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria
| | - Jana Jeschke
- Laboratory of Cancer Epigenetics, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium
| | - Elisabete Weiderpass
- International Agency for Research On Cancer (IARC), 25 avenue Tony Garnier, CS 90627, 69366, Lyon, France
| | - Vessela Kristensen
- Faculty of Medicine, Institute for Clinical Epidemiology and Molecular Biology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Suzette Delaloge
- Department of Cancer Medicine, Institut Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France
| | - François Fuks
- Laboratory of Cancer Epigenetics, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium
| | - Angela Risch
- Division of Cancer Epigenomics, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany
- Department of Biosciences and Medical Biology, Allergy-Cancer-BioNano Research Centre, University of Salzburg, 5020, Salzburg, Austria
- Cancer Cluster Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria
| | - Akram Ghantous
- International Agency for Research On Cancer (IARC), 25 avenue Tony Garnier, CS 90627, 69366, Lyon, France
| | - Christoph Plass
- Division of Cancer Epigenomics, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Christoph Bock
- CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria
- Medical University of Vienna, Institute of Artificial Intelligence, Center for Medical Data Science, Vienna, Austria
| | - Rudolf Kaaks
- Division of Cancer Epidemiology, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Zdenko Herceg
- International Agency for Research On Cancer (IARC), 25 avenue Tony Garnier, CS 90627, 69366, Lyon, France.
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Bodelon C, Ambatipudi S, Dugué PA, Johansson A, Sampson JN, Hicks B, Karlins E, Hutchinson A, Cuenin C, Chajès V, Southey MC, Romieu I, Giles GG, English D, Polidoro S, Assumma M, Baglietto L, Vineis P, Severi G, Herceg Z, Flanagan JM, Milne RL, Garcia-Closas M. Blood DNA methylation and breast cancer risk: a meta-analysis of four prospective cohort studies. Breast Cancer Res 2019; 21:62. [PMID: 31101124 PMCID: PMC6525390 DOI: 10.1186/s13058-019-1145-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/15/2019] [Accepted: 04/23/2019] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Environmental and genetic factors play an important role in the etiology of breast cancer. Several small blood-based DNA methylation studies have reported risk associations with methylation at individual CpGs and average methylation levels; however, these findings require validation in larger prospective cohort studies. To investigate the role of blood DNA methylation on breast cancer risk, we conducted a meta-analysis of four prospective cohort studies, including a total of 1663 incident cases and 1885 controls, the largest study of blood DNA methylation and breast cancer risk to date. METHODS We assessed associations with methylation at 365,145 CpGs present in the HumanMethylation450 (HM450K) Beadchip, after excluding CpGs that did not pass quality controls in all studies. Each of the four cohorts estimated odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for the association between each individual CpG and breast cancer risk. In addition, each study assessed the association between average methylation measures and breast cancer risk, adjusted and unadjusted for cell-type composition. Study-specific ORs were combined using fixed-effect meta-analysis with inverse variance weights. Stratified analyses were conducted by age at diagnosis (< 50, ≥ 50), estrogen receptor (ER) status (+/-), and time since blood collection (< 5, 5-10, > 10 years). The false discovery rate (q value) was used to account for multiple testing. RESULTS The average age at blood draw ranged from 52.2 to 62.2 years across the four cohorts. Median follow-up time ranged from 6.6 to 8.4 years. The methylation measured at individual CpGs was not associated with breast cancer risk (q value > 0.59). In addition, higher average methylation level was not associated with risk of breast cancer (OR = 0.94, 95% CI = 0.85, 1.05; P = 0.26; P for study heterogeneity = 0.86). We found no evidence of modification of this association by age at diagnosis (P = 0.17), ER status (P = 0.88), time since blood collection (P = 0.98), or CpG location (P = 0.98). CONCLUSIONS Our data indicate that DNA methylation measured in the blood prior to breast cancer diagnosis in predominantly postmenopausal women is unlikely to be associated with substantial breast cancer risk on the HM450K array. Larger studies or with greater methylation coverage are needed to determine if associations exist between blood DNA methylation and breast cancer risk.
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Affiliation(s)
- Clara Bodelon
- Divison of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, USA
| | - Srikant Ambatipudi
- International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), Lyon, France
- AMCHSS, Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Trivandrum, India
| | - Pierre-Antoine Dugué
- Cancer Epidemiology and Intelligence Division, Cancer Council Victoria, Melbourne, Victoria Australia
- Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria Australia
| | | | - Joshua N. Sampson
- Divison of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, USA
| | - Belynda Hicks
- Divison of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, USA
- Cancer Genomics Research Laboratory, Leidos Biomedical Research, Inc., Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, Frederick, USA
| | - Eric Karlins
- Divison of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, USA
- Cancer Genomics Research Laboratory, Leidos Biomedical Research, Inc., Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, Frederick, USA
| | - Amy Hutchinson
- Divison of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, USA
- Cancer Genomics Research Laboratory, Leidos Biomedical Research, Inc., Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, Frederick, USA
| | - Cyrille Cuenin
- International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), Lyon, France
| | - Veronique Chajès
- International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), Lyon, France
| | - Melissa C. Southey
- Genetic Epidemiology Laboratory, Department of Pathology, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia
| | - Isabelle Romieu
- International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), Lyon, France
| | - Graham G. Giles
- Cancer Epidemiology and Intelligence Division, Cancer Council Victoria, Melbourne, Victoria Australia
- Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria Australia
| | - Dallas English
- Cancer Epidemiology and Intelligence Division, Cancer Council Victoria, Melbourne, Victoria Australia
- Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria Australia
| | - Silvia Polidoro
- IIGM (Italian Institute for Genomic Medicine), Turin, Italy
- Department of Medical Sciences, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
| | - Manuela Assumma
- IIGM (Italian Institute for Genomic Medicine), Turin, Italy
- Department of Medical Sciences, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
| | - Laura Baglietto
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
| | - Paolo Vineis
- MRC-PHE Center for Environment and Health, School of Public Health, Imperial College, London, UK
| | - Gianluca Severi
- CESP (U1018 INSERM, Équipe Générations et Santé), Facultés de médecine Université Paris-Sud, UVSQ, Université Paris-Saclay, Villejuif, France
| | - Zdenko Herceg
- International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), Lyon, France
| | | | - Roger L. Milne
- Cancer Epidemiology and Intelligence Division, Cancer Council Victoria, Melbourne, Victoria Australia
- Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria Australia
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