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Pre‐diagnostic Leukocyte Genomic DNA Methylation and the Risk of Colorectal Cancer in Women
Author(s) -
Cho Eunyoung,
Nan Hongmei,
Giovannucci Edward L.,
Wu Kana,
Selhub Jacob,
Paul Ligi,
Rosner Bernard,
Fuchs Charles
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.27.1_supplement.120.5
Subject(s) - colorectal cancer , dna methylation , odds ratio , methylation , oncology , medicine , cancer , logistic regression , case control study , biology , dna , genetics , gene , gene expression
Objective We evaluated the association between pre‐diagnostic leukocyte genomic DNA methylation levels and colorectal cancer risk. Methods We conducted a nested case‐control study of 358 colorectal cancer cases and 661 matched controls within the Nurses’ Health Study of women. Among the controls, we further examined major plasma components in one‐carbon metabolism pathway in relation to genomic DNA methylation levels. Liquid chromatography electrospray ionization mass spectrometry method was used to measure DNA methylation. We calculated odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) using logistic regression. Results Genomic DNA methylation levels were not associated with colorectal cancer risk. Compared with women in the lowest quintile of methylation, the multivariate OR of colorectal cancer was 1.32 (95% CI, 0.82–2.13) for those in the highest quintile ( p for trend, 0.45). We did not find associations of major plasma components of one‐carbon metabolism or several risk factors for colorectal cancer with genomic DNA methylation levels. The plasma components and risk factors for colorectal cancer did not modify the association between genomic DNA methylation and colorectal cancer risk. Conclusions We found no evidence that hypomethylation of leukocyte genomic DNA increases risk of colorectal cancer among women. Additional studies are needed in other populations including men. Funding source : This work was supported by research grants CA136950 and CA55075 from the National Institutes of Health