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Oncology outcomes

Do blood metabolites flag future breast cancer in EPIC?

His M, Viallon V, Dossus L, et al. · BMC medicine · 2019

Open access · cc by · source: Europe PMC

In 1624 EPIC breast-cancer cases matched to 1624 controls, higher arginine, asparagine, and several phosphatidylcholines tracked lower risk, while acylcarnitine C2 tracked higher risk.

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Study at a glance

Design
Case-control — Nested case-control in EPIC: 1624 incident invasive breast cancers matched 1:1 to controls; 127 targeted plasma metabolites by mass spectrometry.
N
N=3248 · 1624 cases and 1624 matched controls (after excluding pregnancies from 1626/1626 eligible).
Population
Women in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer with pre-diagnostic plasma and known ER/PR/HER2 status.
Outcome
Incident invasive breast cancer (overall and by subtype) per SD metabolite concentration, especially among non-users of hormones.

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Key findings

Among 2248 women not using hormones at baseline, arginine (OR per SD 0.79), asparagine (0.83), and several PCs (about 0.83–0.85) were inversely associated, while C2 was positively associated (OR 1.23). In the full cohort only C2 (OR 1.15) and PC ae C36:3 (OR 0.88) remained, without clear heterogeneity by subtype, menopause, fasting, or adiposity.

Methodology

Nested 1624 incident invasive breast cancers (known ER/PR/HER2) 1:1 to controls, measured 127 metabolites in pre-diagnostic plasma by mass spectrometry, and used multivariable conditional logistic regression with multiple-testing control.

Limitations

A single baseline blood draw and observational matching cannot prove metabolites cause breast cancer; findings need replication.

How this study connects

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