A Metabolomics Analysis of Postmenopausal Breast Cancer Risk in the Cancer Prevention Study II

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, but its incidence can only be partially explained through established risk factors. Our aim was to use metabolomics to identify novel risk factors for breast cancer and to validate recently reported metabolite-breast cancer findings. We measured levels of 1275 metabolites in prediagnostic serum in a nested case-control study of 782 postmenopausal breast cancer cases and 782 matched controls. Metabolomics analysis was performed by Metabolon Inc using ultra-performance liquid chromatography and a Q-Exactive high resolution/accurate mass spectrometer. Controls were matched by birth date, date of blood draw, and race/ethnicity. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of breast cancer at the 90th versus 10th percentile (modeled on a continuous basis) of metabolite levels were estimated using conditional logistic regression, with adjustment for age. Twenty-four metabolites were significantly associated with breast cancer risk at a false discovery rate <0.20. For the nine metabolites positively associated with risk, the ORs ranged from 1.75 (95% CI: 1.29-2.36) to 1.45 (95% CI: 1.13-1.85), and for the 15 metabolites inversely associated with risk, ORs ranged from 0.59 (95% CI: 0.43-0.79) to 0.69 (95% CI: 0.55-0.87). These metabolites largely comprised carnitines, glycerolipids, and sex steroid metabolites. Associations for three sex steroid metabolites validated findings from recent studies and the remainder were novel. These findings contribute to growing data on metabolite-breast cancer associations by confirming prior findings and identifying novel leads for future validation efforts.