Integrative, genome-wide association study identifies chemicals associated with common women's malignancies

Abstract

Background: Breast cancer, cervical cancer, and ovarian cancer are three of the most commonly diagnosed malignancies in women, and more cancer prevention research is urgently needed.

Methods: Summary data of a large genome-wide association study of female cancers were derived from the UK biobank. We performed a transcriptome-wide association study and a gene set enrichment analysis to identify correlations between chemical exposure and aberrant expression, repression, or mutation of genes related to cancer using the Comparative Toxicogenomics Database.

Results: We identified five chemicals (NSC668394, glafenine, methylnitronitrosoguanidine, fenofibrate, and methylparaben) that were associated with the incidence of both breast cancer and cervical cancer.

Conclusion: Using a transcriptome-wide association study and gene set enrichment analysis we identified environmental chemicals that are associated with an increased risk of breast cancer, cervical cancer, and ovarian cancer.

Keywords: Common women's malignancies; Comparative Toxicogenomics database; Gene set enrichment analysis; Genome-wide association study; Transcriptome-wide association study.