Age of mother and grandmother in relation to a subject's breast cancer risk

Abstract

BACKGROUND: On theoretical grounds, the age of the grandmother and the age of the mother at delivery of her daughter may affect the breast cancer risk of the granddaughter. METHODS: We used the data relating to the Diagnostic Research Mamma-carcinoma cohort (DOM (Diagnostisch Onderzoek Mammacarcinoom) 3), which comprises a population-based sample of 12 178 women aged 41 -63 years at enrolment in 1982 -85 and followed up until 2000. During follow-up 340 postmenopausal breast cancer cases were identified. To these we applied a casecohort design together with a random sample from the baseline cohort (n ¼ 1826). Of these study participants, we were able to retrieve the birth dates of 998 mothers (309 cases, 689 controls), and for 547 of these we also retrieved the birth dates of the grandmothers (197 cases, 350 controls). A weighted Cox proportional hazards model was used to estimate the hazard ratios (HRs) for the effect of the age of the grandmother and the age of the mother on the breast cancer risk of the index women, while adjusting for potential confounders. RESULTS: Compared with the reference group aged 25 -29.9 years, the group with the lowest maternal age (o25 years) had an ageadjusted HR of 0.77 (95% CI 0.19 -3.12) and the group with the highest maternal age (X40 years) had an age-adjusted HR of 1.58 (95% CI 0.01 -267.81), P-value for trend ¼ 0.62. Compared with the same reference group, the group with the lowest grandmaternal age (o25 years) had an age-adjusted HR of 0.53 (95% CI 0.24 -1.17) and the group with the highest grandmaternal age (X40 years) had an age-adjusted HR of 7.29 (95% CI 1.20 -44.46), P for trend ¼ 0.04. The associations did not change significantly after additional adjustment for various risk factors for breast cancer, neither for maternal age nor for grandmaternal age. CONCLUSION: This study does not suggest a major role of maternal age at delivery or grandmaternal age at delivery of the mother for the (grand)daughters' breast cancer risk.

Influence of family size and birth order on risk of cancer: a population-based study

“…Negative association has also been detected in testicular cancer for children of higher birth order [ 4 - 6 ]. Higher birth order often implies higher parental age at conception, although the latter has not been reported to be a risk factor in some studies [ 7 , 8 ] whereas in other studies there was an association found for cancer sites as breast and prostate cancer as well as childhood cancers [ 9 - 13 ]. Genetic diseases or cancer during childhood may shorten the reproduction phase of parents, which could cause higher risk for individuals in families with fewer children [ 14 ].…”

Grandmaternal age at reproduction affects grandoffspring body condition, reproduction and survival in a wild population of lizards

“…We are only aware of a few examples in human and some animals studied in laboratory conditions. In human medicine, it has been shown that GM age is a risk factor for trisomy 21 (Papp et al, 1977;Aagesen et al, 1984;Malini & Ramachandra, 2006, but see also, Allen et al, 2009;Kovaleva et al, 2010) but not for breast cancer (de Haan et al, 2010) and that grandpaternal age is positively correlated with telomere size in grandoffspring (Eisenberg et al, 2012(Eisenberg et al, , 2019. In non-human animals, the pioneering study in rotifers (Lansing, 1947) showed that the repeated effects of the same maternal age over multiple generations increasingly influenced grandoffspring lifespan, i.e., with evidence of a cumulative effect over multiple generations.…”

Determination of Information and Support Needs of First Degree Relatives of Women with Breast Cancer

“…However, it was determined in the study conducted by Haan et al that the age of the mother or grandmother did not play an important role in the breast cancer risk of her daughter or granddaughter (Haan et al, 2010).…”