Family history of cancer, Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry, and pancreatic cancer risk

Tsuyoshi Hamada; Chen Yuan; Matthew B Yurgelun; Kimberly Perez; Natalia Khalaf; Vicente Morales-Oyarvide; Ana Babic; Jonathan A Nowak; Douglas A Rubinson; Marios Giannakis; Kimmie Ng; Peter Kraft; Meir J Stampfer; Edward L Giovannucci; Charles S Fuchs; Shuji Ogino; Brian M Wolpin

doi:10.1038/s41416-019-0426-5

Family history of cancer, Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry, and pancreatic cancer risk

Br J Cancer. 2019 Apr;120(8):848-854. doi: 10.1038/s41416-019-0426-5. Epub 2019 Mar 14.

Authors

Tsuyoshi Hamada^#¹, Chen Yuan^#^{2

3}, Matthew B Yurgelun², Kimberly Perez², Natalia Khalaf⁴, Vicente Morales-Oyarvide², Ana Babic², Jonathan A Nowak⁵, Douglas A Rubinson², Marios Giannakis^{2

6

7}, Kimmie Ng², Peter Kraft^{3

8}, Meir J Stampfer^{3

9

10}, Edward L Giovannucci^{3

9

10}, Charles S Fuchs^{11

12

13}, Shuji Ogino^#^{1

3

5

6}, Brian M Wolpin^#¹⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Oncologic Pathology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, 450 Brookline Avenue, Boston, MA, 02215, USA.
² Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, 450 Brookline Avenue, Boston, MA, 02215, USA.
³ Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
⁴ Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Endoscopy, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, 75 Francis Street, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
⁵ Program in MPE Molecular Pathological Epidemiology, Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, 75 Francis Street, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
⁶ Broad Institute of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard, 415 Main Street, Cambridge, MA, 02142, USA.
⁷ Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, 75 Francis Street, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
⁸ Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
⁹ Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, 181 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
¹¹ Yale Cancer Center, 333 Cedar Street, New Haven, CT, 06510, USA.
¹² Department of Medicine, Yale School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, New Haven, CT, 06510, USA.
¹³ Smilow Cancer Hospital, 20 York Street, New Haven, CT, 06519, USA.
¹⁴ Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, 450 Brookline Avenue, Boston, MA, 02215, USA. bwolpin@partners.org.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: Individuals with a family history of cancer may be at increased risk of pancreatic cancer. Ashkenazi Jewish (AJ) individuals carry increased risk for pancreatic cancer and other cancer types.

Methods: We examined the association between family history of cancer, AJ heritage, and incident pancreatic cancer in 49 410 male participants of the prospective Health Professionals Follow-up Study. Hazard ratios (HRs) were estimated using multivariable-adjusted Cox proportional hazards models.

Results: During 1.1 million person-years (1986-2016), 452 participants developed pancreatic cancer. Increased risk of pancreatic cancer was observed in individuals with a family history of pancreatic (HR, 2.79; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.28-6.07) or breast cancer (HR, 1.40; 95% CI, 1.01-1.94). There was a trend towards higher risk of pancreatic cancer in relation to a family history of colorectal cancer (HR, 1.21; 95% CI, 0.95-1.55) or AJ heritage (HR, 1.29; 95% CI, 0.94-1.77). The risk was highly elevated among AJ men with a family history of breast or colorectal cancer (HR, 2.61 [95% CI, 1.41-4.82] and 1.92 [95% CI, 1.05-3.49], respectively).

Conclusion: Family history of pancreatic cancer was associated with increased risk of this malignancy. Family history of breast or colorectal cancer was associated with the increased risk among AJ men.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Aged
Breast Neoplasms / epidemiology
Breast Neoplasms / pathology
Colorectal Neoplasms / epidemiology
Colorectal Neoplasms / pathology
Female
Humans
Jews / genetics*
Male
Medical History Taking*
Middle Aged
Pancreatic Neoplasms / epidemiology
Pancreatic Neoplasms / genetics*
Pancreatic Neoplasms / pathology
Risk Factors

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding