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Familiality of Breast Cancer and Socioeconomic Status in Blacks¹

Family Studies Section, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland 20892 [C. I. A., A. M. G.], and Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland 21205 [E. L. H.]

Familial patterns of the occurrence of breast cancer were studied in a population-based case-control series of black women from the Cancer and Steroid Hormone study. The risks of breast cancer among relatives of breast cancer cases were compared to those of controls who were matched for age and locale. Using the term "proband" to indicate either case or control status, significant predictors of risk to the relatives of probands included case/control status of the proband and the number of years of education completed by the proband. Genetic segregation analysis of the case families using external risks generated from SEER data indicated that the familial aggregation was consistent with Mendelian recessive transmission of a single major gene. The use of internally estimated risks, which are much less stable than the SEER risks, no longer permitted discrimination among the major locus models examined. To avoid possible reporting bias, we also performed segregation analysis on families of probands who had completed at least 12 years of education. The results from this analysis reflected the results from the entire data.

¹ The Cancer and Steroid Hormone Study was supported by Interagency Agreement 3-Y01-8-1037 between the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the NIH, and the Department of Health and Human Services, with additional support from the National Cancer Institute, NIH, Department of Health and Human Services.

This study was conducted in collaboration with the Cancer and Steroid Hormone Group of the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, which includes the following individuals: George L. Rubin (principal investigator); Phyllis A. Wingo (project director); and Nancy C. Lee, Michele G. Mandel, and Herbert B. Peterson (project associates). Principal investigators at data collection centers: Raymond Greenberg (Atlanta, GA); J. Wister Meigs, W. Douglas Thompson (Connecticut); G. Marie Swanson (Detroit, MI); Elaine Smith (Iowa); Charles Key, Dorothy Pathak (New Mexico); Donald Austin (San Francisco, CA); David Thomas (Seattle, WA); Joseph Lyon, Dee West (Utah). Principal investigators for pathology review: Fred Gorstein, Robert McDivitt, Stanley J. Robboy. Project consultants: Lonnie Burnett, Robert Hoover, Peter M. Layde, Howard W. Ory, James J. Schlesselman, David Schottenfeld, Bruce Stadel, Linda A. Webster, and Colin White. Pathology consultants: Walter Bauer, William Christopherson, Deborah Gersell, Robert Kurman, Allen Paris, and Frank Vellios.

² To whom requests for reprints should be addressed, at Family Studies Section, National Cancer Institute, Suite 439, Executive Plaza North, Bethesda, MD 20892.

Received 10/ 2/90. Accepted 1/21/91.

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