Clare Bunker

• University of Pittsburgh

Background : Both high and low maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) can lead to suboptimal fetal growth and risk of pregnancy complications. In developed countries, nearly half of all women of childbearing age are either overweight or obese and most data linking maternal BMI and adverse pregnancy complications are limited to these populatio...

Background Consanguineous marriage (CM) has been linked to spontaneous abortion (SAB), although studies have largely been cross-sectional and likely underestimated early loss. We aimed to determine the relationships between CM and SAB in a prospective pregnancy cohort study in Telangana State, India.Methods Data from 661 participants aged 15–35 yea...

Common variants in the hepatic lipase (LIPC) gene have been shown to be associated with plasma lipid levels; however, the distribution and functional features of rare and regulatory LIPC variants contributing to the extreme lipid phenotypes are not well known. This study was aimed to catalogue LIPC variants by resequencing the entire LIPC gene in 9...

Background: Waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) has recently been found to be a useful marker of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in populations in developed countries; the comparison of various obesity indices, particularly WHtR, has received little study in India and other developing countries. Aim: This study aimed to compare the associations of co...

Background: Adipose tissue (AT) distribution, which differs by race/ethnicity, can differentially impact risk for cardiometabolic disease. Traditional analyses using AT volumes tend to place all ATs in a regression model, estimating an increase in one AT volume while “holding other volumes constant”; however, the compositional nature of the data su...

Background Caesarean section delivery is increasing worldwide and in India, yet little is known about the effect on infants. We examined the association between caesarean delivery and adverse infant outcomes in an Indian national survey, accounting for factors related to the mode of delivery. Methods Inverse probability weighted logistic regressio...

We sought to identify factors associated with mode of delivery in a peri-urban Indian population with a high cesarean section rate. Poisson regression with robust error variance was applied to model factors associated with cesarean compared to vaginal delivery in a prospective, preconception pregnancy cohort study in Telangana State, India. Adjuste...

Background: Prospective studies examining the potential association of vitamin D with age-related muscle loss have shown inconsistent results. Objective: To examine the association between baseline serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D), 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D (1,25(OH)2D), and prospective change in lean mass with aging in African ancestry populat...

The apolipoprotein E-C1-C4-C2 gene cluster at 19q13.32 encodes four amphipathic apolipoproteins. The influence of APOE common polymorphisms on plasma lipid/lipoprotein profile, especially on LDL-related traits, is well recognized; however, little is known about the role of other genes/variants in this gene cluster. In this study, we evaluated the r...

Background: While overall obesity remains a major risk factor for cardiometabolic diseases, the location of stored fat is also thought to play a role. In addition to fat storage in ectopic sites, the density of fat, a marker of fat quality, is emerging as a novel risk factor for cardiometabolic diseases. Previous studies have focused primarily on v...

Emerging evidence indicates that ectopic skeletal muscle adiposity may be a novel risk factor for type 2 diabetes (T2D), especially in African ancestry individuals. In vitro studies suggest that a Wnt pathway inhibitor, Dickkopf related protein 1 (DKK1), plays a role in adiposity regulation and could be a novel biomarker for adiposity in humans. Th...

Background: Previous studies have found a relationship between cesarean section delivery and adverse outcomes in the offspring, partially attributing these findings to differential development of immunity in infants delivered by cesarean compared to vaginal delivery. The purpose of this study is to determine whether cesarean section delivery is as...

Objective: African ancestry individuals are at high risk for hypertensive cardiovascular disease (CVD) and could benefit from early detection of arterial stiffening. We tested the association between the 2017 ACC/AHA hypertension categorizations, which include new blood pressure (BP) cutoffs and a definition for elevated BP, and arterial stiffness...

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men in the United States and is second to lung cancer as a cause of cancer death. The occurrence of prostate cancer is not uniform among different races. It is more prevalent among African Americans than either Caucasians or Asians. This increased risk for prostate cancer among men of African descent...

Objective: to examine the association between breastfeeding patterns and risk of epithelial ovarian cancer. Methods: We examined duration, age, and timing factors related to breastfeeding episodes among parous women in a population-based case-control study conducted in western PA, eastern OH, and southwestern NY from 2003-2008 (the HOPE Study). We...

Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is the fifth leading cause of cancer mortality in American women. Normal ovarian physiology is intricately connected to small GTP binding proteins of the Ras superfamily (Ras, Rho, Rab, Arf, and Ran) which govern processes such as signal transduction, cell proliferation, cell motility, and vesicle transport. We hypot...

Association of rs10788679 in the ARHGEF10L gene with invasive serous EOC risk by study site and combined. Squares represent the estimated per-allele odds ratio (OR) and are proportional to sample size for each study; lines indicate its 95% confidence interval (CI); Source indicates contributing study [11]; MAF, control minor allele frequency; PVal,...

Association of rs927062 in the AKAP6 gene with invasive EOC risk by study site and combined. Squares represent the estimated per-allele odds ratio (OR) and are proportional to sample size for each study; lines indicate its 95% confidence interval (CI); Source indicates contributing study [11]; MAF, control minor allele frequency; PVal, per-allele p...

Results from EOC genetic association analysis on 99 SNPs in RAS pathway genes with nominal p-value <0.05 in analysis of all invasive patients, patients with invasive serous, endometrioid, clear cell, or mucinous subtypes, and patients with borderline tumors versus controls. More details are available upon request. (XLSX)

Association of rs1955513 in the AKAP6 gene with invasive EOC risk by study site and combined. Squares represent the estimated per-allele odds ratio (OR) and are proportional to sample size for each study; lines indicate its 95% confidence interval (CI); Source indicates contributing study [11]; MAF, control minor allele frequency; PVal, per-allele...

Results from prior published EOC GWAS results on the targeted 339 SNPs in 88 RAS pathway genes. More details are available upon request. (XLS)

Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is the fifth leading cause of cancer mortality in American women. Normal ovarian physiology is intricately connected to small GTP binding proteins of the Ras superfamily (Ras, Rho, Rab, Arf, and Ran) which govern processes such as signal transduction, cell proliferation, cell motility, and vesicle transport. We hypot...

Background: Emerging evidence indicates that ectopic skeletal muscle adiposity (i.e., myosteatosis) is greater in African than in European ancestry individuals, and may be a novel risk factor contributing to increased diabetes risk. However, the biological mechanisms underlying myosteatosis are largely unknown. In vitro studies suggest that a Wnt p...

Background: African ancestry populations are at the epicenter of the obesity and diabetes epidemic. Secreted frizzled-related protein 5 (SFRP5) is a novel adipokine and Wnt pathway modulator which is thought to be inversely related with adiposity and diabetes risk, however data in humans is conflicting. Therefore, we examined the association of SFR...

Background: Mobility limitations are common, with higher prevalence in African Americans compared to whites, and are associated with disability, institutionalization and death. Aging is associated with losses of lean mass and a shift to central adiposity, which are more pronounced in African Americans. We aimed to examine the association of body c...

The wingless (Wnt) pathway is known to regulate many human systems, including embryonic development, bone mineralization, and cancer. There is emerging basic research evidence that the Wnt pathway is also involved in angiogenesis, atherosclerosis, and vascular damage repair. However, there have been no studies of the Wnt pathway and cardiovascular...

Introduction: Adherence to a Mediterranean-style diet pattern has been associated with altered body fat distribution among African Americans. To further evaluate these relationships, we investigated associations of adherence to the Alternative Mediterranean Diet (aMED) pattern with fat deposition in an ongoing cohort study of African-Caribbean men....

Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is the fifth leading cause of cancer mortality in American women. Normal ovarian physiology is intricately connected to small GTP binding proteins of the Ras superfamily (Ras, Rho, Rab, Arf, and Ran) which govern processes such as signal transduction, cell proliferation, cell motility, and vesicle transport. We hypot...

Aim Falls are an important contributor to loss of function, morbidity, and mortality in elders. Little is known about falls in Indian populations. The objective of this cross-sectional report was to identify the prevalence and correlates of falls in a cohort of 562 rural southern Indian men and women. Methods Risk factors included demographics, an...

Background and aims There is strong evidence that fat accumulating in non-adipose sites, “ectopic fat”, is associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD), including vascular calcification. Most previous studies of this association have assessed only a single ectopic fat depot. Therefore, our aim was to assess the association of total, regional, and e...

Black men are known to have a higher risk for prostate cancer (PC). Carotenoids and retinol, linked to PC, have not been compared in different black populations at risk. We examined serum carotenoid and retinol levels between PC-free African-Caribbean (AC) Tobagonian men with a high PC risk (high-grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia, atypical...

Although obesity is a major driver of type 2 diabetes (T2D), many obese individuals do not develop T2D. Indeed, fat around and within non-adipose tissue organs (i.e., ectopic fat) is emerging as a strong risk factor for diabetes. The potential differential contribution of ectopic fat depots throughout the body on T2D risk is unclear because studies...

Objective: While ectopic adiposity is considered a risk factor for many chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease, the extent to which this association is independent of total adiposity is yet to be established. Vascular calcification, which is associated with greater adiposity, is a subclinical marker of cardiovascular disease that may ha...

Increased ectopic adipose tissue infiltration in skeletal muscle is associated with insulin resistance and diabetes mellitus. We evaluated whether change in skeletal muscle adiposity predicts subsequent development of hypertension in men of African ancestry, a population sample understudied in previous studies. In the Tobago Health Study, a prospec...

Background: Serum-prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels have been used for many years as a biomarker for prostate cancer. This usage is under scrutiny due to the fact that elevated PSA levels can be caused by other conditions such as benign prostatic hyperplasia and infections of or injury to the prostate. As a result, the identification of speci...

The natural history and mortality of type 1 diabetes in adolescents in Africa is not well characterized. Our aim is, therefore, to describe these characteristics for cases in the Rwanda Life For a Child (LFAC) program. Participants (≤25 years old) were the first 500 children and youth enrolled in the Rwanda LFAC program from 2004 to 2012. Clinical...

Objectives: To compare the cytokine profile between human herpesvirus 8 seropositive and seronegative men with and without prostate cancer. Methods: The study sample was obtained from the Tobago Prostate Survey, an ongoing study of prostate cancer in the Caribbean island of Tobago. Participants in the study were recruited mostly by public servic...

Objective: To compare all-cause-mortality in screening-detected prostate cancer cases versus non-cases after a median 12.2-year follow-up. Methods: In this prospective, population-based study of 3089 Afro-Caribbean men aged 40–79 years in Tobago, Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies, all men were screened for prostate cancer (serum prostate specific an...

Objective: Clinical genetic testing is commercially available for rs61764370, an inherited variant residing in a KRAS 3' UTR microRNA binding site, based on suggested associations with increased ovarian and breast cancer risk as well as with survival time. However, prior studies, emphasizing particular subgroups, were relatively small. Therefore,...

Background: fat infiltration within and around skeletal muscle (i.e. myosteatosis) increases with ageing, is greater in African versus European ancestry men and is associated with poor health. Myosteatosis studies of mortality are lacking, particularly among African ancestry populations. Methods: in the Tobago Health study, a prospective longitu...

Context: Acute infections of eyes, ears, skin, and others are a common cause of morbidity in under-five children. The overall burden of other infections and their risk factors is not known. Evidence acquisition: Available literature was searched comprehensively using PubMed for acute infections (except acute respiratory and diarrheal diseases) u...

Hypertension is associated with accelerated bone loss, and the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system is a key regulator of blood pressure. Although components of this system are expressed in human bone cells, studies in humans are sparse. Thus, we studied the association of circulating renin and aldosterone with osteocalcin and bone mineral density....

Introduction: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death throughout the world and age-adjusted rates of CVD mortality in Trinidad and Tobago are estimated to be ~2x those of the US. Given the drastic differences in culture and urbanization between Tobago and the US, we started the Tobago Heart Health Study to evaluate several aspect...

Background: Emerging evidence indicates that ectopic fat, such as that in the visceral depot or muscle fat infiltration, may be associated with diabetes, independent of general obesity.Very little is known about the health effects of fat density, an emerging novel indicator of fat quality. Existing studies have focused on visceral or pericardial fa...

Background: Acute diarrhea accounts for a huge burden of infectious diseases in under-five children. Objective: This systematic review was carried out to study the prevalence and associated risk factors of diarrhea among Indian children aged <5 years. Methods: Papers were identified by a comprehensive electronic search of relevant medical subj...

Background: The Caribbean island of Tobago, which is 97% African ancestry, has one of the highest rates of prostate cancer in the world. We have previously reported that human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8) infection is significantly associated with prostate cancer in Tobago. In this study, we extend those results testing the hypothesis that HHV-8 seroposi...

Disruption in circadian gene expression, whether due to genetic variation or environmental factors (e.g., light at night, shiftwork), is associated with increased incidence of breast, prostate, gastrointestinal and hematologic cancers and gliomas. Circadian genes are highly expressed in the ovaries where they regulate ovulation; circadian disruptio...

Objective: Cross-sectional studies suggest that lipopolysaccharide-binding protein (LBP) may be associated with obesity and metabolic disorders. However, prospective studies examining LBP are lacking. This prospective study investigated the association between LBP and metabolic abnormalities in 580 African ancestry men (mean age, 59.1 ± 10.5 years...

Objective: Skeletal muscle fat infiltration (known as myosteatosis) is greater in African compared with European ancestry men and may play an important role in the development of type 2 diabetes (T2D). However, prospective studies examining the magnitude of changes in myosteatosis with aging and their metabolic consequences are sparse. Methods:...

Aim The Mobility and Independent Living in Elders Study (MILES) was established in 2012 to estimate the prevalence, incidence, and risk factors for disability and age-related disease in rural older Indians. Here we describe the main goals of MILES, the essential elements of its design and examinations, and the initial findings from the baseline vi...

Introduction: Studies of lipid and lipoprotein cholesterol associations with bone mineral density (BMD) and bone loss have been inconclusive, and longitudinal data are sparse. Therefore, the aim of this study was to test if fasting serum lipid and lipoprotein cholesterol levels are associated with areal and volumetric BMD and BMD change. Methods:...

Background: High-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) exerts many anti-atherogenic properties including its role in reverse cholesterol transport (RCT). Scavenger receptor class B member 1 (SCARB1) plays a key role in RCT by selective uptake of HDL cholesteryl esters. We aimed to explore the genetic contribution of SCARB1 to affecting lipid lev...

Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a process whereby epithelial cells assume mesenchymal characteristics to facilitate cancer metastasis. However, EMT also contributes to the initiation and development of primary tumors. Prior studies that explored the hypothesis that EMT gene variants contribute to epithelial ovarian carcinoma (EOC) risk h...

BACKGROUND:Defective cellular transport processes can lead to aberrant accumulation of trace elements, iron, small molecules and hormones in the cell, which in turn may promote the formation of reactive oxygen species, promoting DNA damage and aberrant expression of key regulatory cancer genes. As DNA damage and uncontrolled proliferation are hallm...

Defective cellular transport processes can lead to aberrant accumulation of trace elements, iron, small molecules and hormones in the cell, which in turn may promote the formation of reactive oxygen species, promoting DNA damage and aberrant expression of key regulatory cancer genes. As DNA damage and uncontrolled proliferation are hallmarks of can...

Poor renal function is associated with increased rates of bone loss and osteoporotic fractures in Caucasian men. The importance of kidney function for skeletal health in African ancestry men, who are a population segment with a high prevalence of chronic kidney disease as well as high peak bone mass, is not well known. We examined the relationship...

Background: Intramuscular fat is greater in African compared with European ancestry men and is now recognized as a major risk factor for cardio-metabolic diseases, independent of general obesity. However, prospective studies examining health consequences of this important ectopic fat depot are lacking, particularly in high-risk African ancestry pop...

Objective: Sclerostin, a Wnt pathway antagonist, is an established regulator of bone mineralization in humans but its potential importance in the regulation of vascular calcification is less clear. Therefore, our objective was to assess the relationship of serum sclerostin levels with coronary and aortic artery calcification (CAC and AAC, respectiv...

Genome-wide association studies have identified several loci associated with plasma lipid levels but those common variants together account only for a small proportion of the genetic variance of lipid traits. It has been hypothesized that the remaining heritability may partly be explained by rare variants with strong effect sizes. Here, we have com...

Human herpesvirus 8 (HHV‐8) is the causal agent of Kaposi's sarcoma (KS). In Tobago, KS is not common; however, HHV‐8 seropositivity has been reported to be 39.9% in men with prostate cancer compared to <22.9% in healthier women and men. To understand HHV‐8 transmission, we examined HHV‐8 seroconversion and seroreversion, and risk factors for these...

AimsTo determine prevalence and incidence estimates for clinically recognized cases of Type 1 diabetes from the Life For a Child Program (LFAC) with onset < 26 years in six representative districts, and the capital, of Rwanda.Methods Cases were identified from the LFAC registry and visits to district hospitals. Denominators were calculated from dis...

Sclerostin, a Wingless (Wnt) pathway antagonist, is an established regulator of bone mineralization in humans but its potential importance in the regulation of vascular calcification is less clear. Therefore, our objective was to assess the relationship of serum sclerostin levels with coronary and aortic artery calcification (CAC and AAC, respectiv...

The aim of the study was to determine the heritability of serum dickkopf-1 (DKK1) and its association with DKK1 polymorphisms in African ancestry subjects. Serum DKK1 was measured in 422 Afro-Caribbean men and women aged 18+ from 7 large, multi-generational families (mean family size: 60; 3,215 relative pairs). Twenty-four common single nucleotide...

Although common APOE genetic variation has a major influence on plasma LDL-cholesterol, its role in affecting HDL-cholesterol and triglycerides is not well established. Recent genome-wide association studies suggest that APOE also affects plasma variation in HDL-cholesterol and triglycerides. It is thus important to resequence the APOE gene to iden...

Objectives To examine the association between statin use and objectively assessed decline in gait speed in community-dwelling older adults.DesignLongitudinal cohort study.SettingHealth, Aging and Body Composition (Health ABC) Study.ParticipantsTwo thousand five participants aged 70–79 at baseline with medication and gait speed data at 1998–99, 1999...

Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a major health problem accounting for 30% of deaths globally. Projected increases in the population aged 60+ are greatest in developing countries, including India and will lead to increased CVD burden. Hypertension is the most common risk factor for CVD worldwide. We examined the prevalence of CVD and its...

Traditional disease-free survival (DFS) does not reflect changes in prognosis over time. Conditional DFS accounts for elapsed time since achieving remission and may provide more relevant prognostic information for patients and clinicians. This study aimed to estimate conditional DFS among patients with ovarian cancer and to evaluate the impact of p...

Aims To assess change in glycemic control concurrent with increased clinic visits, HbA1c testing, and education. Rates of complications were also examined. Methods A 1-2 year follow-up of 214 members of the Rwanda Life for a Child program (aged < 26 years) with a first HbA1c between June 2009 and November 2010 was conducted. Data were analyzed for...

Background: Survival estimates are traditionally reported from the time of diagnosis or remission. Although these estimates provide important information, they are not necessarily still applicable to patients who have already survived a period of time after their initial diagnosis and treatment. Conditional disease-free survival accounts for elapse...

Low trabecular (Tb) and cortical (Ct) volumetric BMD (vBMD) are related to increased fracture risk, but little is known about the patterns and correlates of Tb and Ct vBMD loss with aging. We examined the rates of change in total, Tb.vBMD and Ct.vBMD at the radius and tibia, and identified factors associated with vBMD loss among 1,569 men of Africa...

The high prevalence, incidence and mortality rates of prostate cancer in Tobago would appear to strongly indicate that screening of this population would be justified and could positively impact on mortality. We consider our approach to be consonant with the recommendations of the EAU (Heidenreich A et al, 2013) and the findings of Hugosson et al,...

Although fracture rates are lower in individuals of African descent compared to individuals of European ancestry, morbidity and mortality following a fracture may be greater in African ancestry individuals. However, fracture risk and associated clinical risk factors have not been well-defined among African ancestry populations, especially among Afr...

Despite a worldwide increase in obesity, little is known about obesity in Africa and factors related to attempting weight loss (AWL) in high-risk populations. The aims of this study were to determine the prevalence of obesity among patients in a Togolese cardiology clinic and determine predictors of reporting AWL and physician advice for weight los...

A missense single nucleotide polymorphism in the immune modulatory gene IL1A has been associated with ovarian cancer risk (rs17561), but the functional implications of this polymorphism are undefined. IL-1α is regulated by and activated by NF-κB, a transcription factor family that induces transcription of IL1A along with other pro-inflammatory gene...

Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is a heterogeneous cancer with both genetic and environmental risk factors. Variants influencing the risk of developing the less-common EOC subtypes have not been fully investigated. We performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of EOC according to subtype by pooling genomic DNA from 545 cases and 398 controls...

In rural southern India, despite high rates of antenatal visits and of delivery within healthcare institutions, the infant mortality rate (IMR) remains high at 42 deaths per 1,000 live births. In order to further understand the social, ecological, financial, and environmental factors contributing to adverse health outcomes, convenience sampling was...

Intima-media thickness, adventitial diameter and lumen diameter are indicators of cardiovascular disease risk. The influence of genetic factors on these measures in African ancestry populations is not well defined. Therefore, we estimated heritability and performed genome-wide linkage analysis of carotid ultrasound traits in 7 multigenerational fam...

Iodine-123 meta-iodobenzylguanidine (I-mIBG) imaging has prognostic value in patients with heart failure (HF). Renal dysfunction is prevalent in HF patients. I-mIBG is excreted by the kidneys, and the effect of renal dysfunction on its myocardial uptake and established prognostic value in HF patients is unknown. The data analysed are from patients...

We determined factors associated with serum sclerostin in 446 Afro-Caribbean family members. Age, weight, sex, diabetes and kidney function were associated with sclerostin. Sclerostin was heritable, and nine SNPs in the SOST gene region were associated with sclerostin. Variation in serum sclerostin is a heritable factor that is determined by both g...

Risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and mortality are increased in people with subclinical CVD. The impact of ethnicity and race on subclinical CVD is substantial. Previous studies assessed the heritability of several renal function biomarkers and their relationship with subclinical CVD among populations of European ancestries, but, to our knowled...

We tested for association between cortical and trabecular volumetric bone mineral density (vBMD) with abdominal aortic calcification (AAC) prevalence in 278 Afro-Caribbean men. AAC was present in 68.3 % of the men. Greater cortical, but not trabecular, vBMD was associated with significantly decreased odds of AAC independent of traditional risk fact...

Bone mineral density (BMD) has been inversely associated with subclinical and clinical cardiovascular disease (CVD) in population studies, but the potential mechanisms underlying this relationship are unclear. To test if there is a genetic basis underlying this association, we determined the phenotypic and genetic correlations between BMD and carot...

Background: Ovarian carcinoma is composed of five major histologic types, which associate with outcome and predict therapeutic response. Our aim was to evaluate histologic type assessments across the centers participating in the Ovarian Tumor Tissue Analysis (OTTA) consortium using an immunohistochemical (IHC) prediction model. Methods: Tissue m...

Objectives: To describe inpatient surgical and diagnostic/therapeutic procedures in women ≥65 years old and assess procedure trends over time. Study design: Procedure data for all women ≥65 years was collected using the National Hospital Discharge Survey, a federal dataset drawn from a representative sampling of U.S. inpatient hospitals which in...

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified a number of loci/SNPs associated with plasma total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and triglyceride (TG) levels. The purpose of this study was to replicate 40 recent GWAS-identified HDL-C-related new loci in 3 epidemio...

Objective Compared to other ethnic groups, African ancestry individuals have lower triglycerides and higher HDL-C levels, although the mechanisms for these differences remain unclear. Our objective was to evaluate a comprehensive array of factors potentially related to fasting serum lipid and lipoprotein levels in African ancestry men. Design and...

Importance A child's health, positive perceptions of the research team and consent process, and altruistic motives play significant roles in the decision-making process for parents who consent for their child to enroll in clinical research. This study identified that nonconsenting parents were better educated, had private insurance, showed lower le...

HNF1B is overexpressed in clear cell epithelial ovarian cancer, and we observed epigenetic silencing in serous epithelial ovarian cancer, leading us to hypothesize that variation in this gene differentially associates with epithelial ovarian cancer risk according to histological subtype. Here we comprehensively map variation in HNF1B with respect t...

HNF1B is overexpressed in clear cell epithelial ovarian cancer, and we observed epigenetic silencing in serous epithelial ovarian cancer, leading us to hypothesize that variation in this gene differentially associates with epithelial ovarian cancer risk according to histological subtype. Here we comprehensively map variation in HNF1B with respect t...

TERT-locus SNPs and leukocyte telomere measures are reportedly associated with risks of multiple cancers. Using the Illumina custom genotyping array iCOGs, we analyzed ∼480 SNPs at the TERT locus in breast (n = 103,991), ovarian (n = 39,774) and BRCA1 mutation carrier (n = 11,705) cancer cases and controls. Leukocyte telomere measurements were also...

TERT-locus single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and leucocyte telomere measures are reportedly associated with risks of multiple cancers. Using the iCOGs chip, we analysed ~480 TERT-locus SNPs in breast (n=103,991), ovarian (n=39,774) and BRCA1 mutation carrier (11,705) cancer cases and controls. 53,724 participants have leucocyte telomere measur...

Purpose: The majority of previous studies have observed an increased risk of mucinous ovarian tumors associated with cigarette smoking, but the association with other histological types is unclear. In a large pooled analysis, we examined the risk of epithelial ovarian cancer associated with multiple measures of cigarette smoking with a focus on ch...

Supplementary Table 1 presents the incidence rates and references for the information plotted in Figure 1. Supplementary Table 2 presents rates that were not included in Figure 1 because they represent estimates that were not standardized to the 1960 world population, did not reflect a clearly defined reference population, were hospital or clinic-b...

Background Studies evaluating the association between alcohol intake and ovarian carcinoma (OC) are inconsistent. Because OC and ovarian borderline tumor histologic types differ genetically, molecularly and clinically, large numbers are needed to estimate risk associations. Methods We pooled data from 12 case-control studies in the Ovarian Cancer...