Abstract 28: Integrating genomic and transcriptomic data to identify genetic loci associated with breast cancer risk in women of African ancestry
Authors: Jia Guochong , Ping Jie , Yang Yaohua , Sanderson Maureen , Cai Qiuyin , Guo Xingyi , Blot William J. , Li Bingshan , Bandera Elisa V. , Bolla Manjeet K. , García-Closas Montserrat , Easton Douglas F. , Fadden Mary K. , Gu Jian , Huo Dezheng , John Esther M. , Lunetta Kathryn L. , Olopade Olufunmilayo I. , Shu Xiang , Troester Melissa A. , Yao Song ,   Breast Cancer Association Consortium, Olshan Andrew F. , Ambrosone Christine B. , Haiman Christopher A. , Long Jirong , Palmer Julie R. , Zheng Wei 
Published: September 2020

Background: To date, most genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of breast cancer have been conducted only among women of Asian and European ancestry. It is difficult to generalize results from those studies to women of African ancestry (AA). We conducted a large genetic association study of breast cancer in women of AA by analyzing both genetic and transcriptomic data.

Methods: This collaborative study included 11,073 cases and 11,095 controls of AA who were participants in more than 15 studies conducted in the U.S. and Africa. Genotyping data were harmonized and imputed using the 1000 Genomes Project database as the reference. Imputed genotypes were used for GWAS to identify novel genetic risk loci for breast cancer. To search for susceptibility genes, we conducted a transcriptome-wide association study (TWAS), in which gene expression prediction models were built using genetic and tumor tissue RNA sequencing data from ~400 AA patients and used to impute expression levels of genes across the transcriptome for association analyses in all cases and controls included in the GWAS mentioned above.

Results: We identified five loci (5p15.33, 5q31.3, 10q26.13, 18q12.1, and 19p13.11) associated with breast cancer risk at P &lt; 5 × 10−8, including a novel locus at 5q31.3 (allelic odds ratio, OR = 1.18, 95% CI = 1.11-1.25, P = 4.65 × 10−8, nearby gene, ARHGAP26). This locus was also identified in association with estrogen receptor (ER) positive breast cancer at P &lt; 5 × 10−8. Analyses stratified by ER status replicated known loci associated specifically with ER-positive (10q26.13) or ER-negative (2q14.2, 2p11.2, 5p15.33) breast cancer at P &lt; 5 × 10−8. Of the 165 lead risk SNPs reported from previous breast cancer GWAS, 35 SNPs were replicated with the same association direction at P &lt; 0.05. We constructed a polygenic risk score using these 35 replicated SNPs and the lead risk SNP at the novel locus and estimated the AUC to be 0.575. Of the 7,592 genes tested in the TWAS, we identified one gene, AC091053.1, with an association at a Bonferroni-corrected threshold of 6.64 × 10−6 (0.05/7,592). AC091053.1 is a long non-coding RNA gene at locus 11p15.4, where no risk variants have been identified in any previous breast cancer GWAS. AC091053.1 is located in the region of protein coding gene DENND2B, which acts as a regulator of MAPK1/ERK2 kinase and reduces the tumorigenic phenotype in cells. The gene AC091053.1 was associated with ER-positive breast cancer with P = 4.11 × 10−5 and ER-negative breast cancer with P = 0.032.

Conclusions: Our study, the largest genetic study conducted to date in AA, identified novel breast cancer risk loci at 5q31.3 and 11p15.4 (AC091053.1) among women of AA and replicated &gt;30 associations reported in previous studies. Studies with a larger sample size are needed to further investigate genetic variants and genes associated with breast cancer risk in AA women.

Citation Format: Guochong Jia, Jie Ping, Yaohua Yang, Maureen Sanderson, Qiuyin Cai, Xingyi Guo, William J. Blot, Bingshan Li, Elisa V. Bandera, Manjeet K. Bolla, Montserrat García-Closas, Douglas F. Easton, Mary K. Fadden, Jian Gu, Dezheng Huo, Esther M. John, Kathryn L. Lunetta, Olufunmilayo I. Olopade, Xiang Shu, Melissa A. Troester, Song Yao, Breast Cancer Association Consortium, Andrew F. Olshan, Christine B. Ambrosone, Christopher A. Haiman, Jirong Long, Julie R. Palmer, Wei Zheng. Integrating genomic and transcriptomic data to identify genetic loci associated with breast cancer risk in women of African ancestry [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research 2020; 2020 Apr 27-28 and Jun 22-24. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(16 Suppl):Abstract nr 28.