ATM and Breast Cancer Susceptibility
Previous studies suggest that individuals who are heterozygous for mutations in the ATM (ataxia-telangiectasia) gene are at increased risk for breast cancer. The WECARE Consortium (Women's Environment, Cancer, And Radiation Exposure), of 16 laboratories was formed in order to create a repository of a large number of samples from women with asynchronous bilateral (contralateral) breast cancer and women with unilateral breast cancer (serving as controls in the study) with which to study the connection between breast cancer, radiation exposure, and ATM gene mutations. We are testing the hypothesis that radiation therapy of ATM carriers with primary breast tumors promotes second primary tumors in the contralateral breast.
The Concannon Lab will be responsible for the screening of 926 samples for ATM mutations. In order to enhance statistical power, the study uses a new strategy of countermatching controls rather than the standard random sampling of controls. Each case (bilateral breast cancer) with be matched with 2 controls (unilateral breast cancer) having the same age, ethnicity, residential area and date of diagnosis of the first tumor. Each triplet will include two samples that have had radiation therapy. In this way we hope to test for the association of bilateral breast cancer to ATM carrier status, and radiation treatment.
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