Identification of ten variants associated with risk of estrogen-receptor-negative breast cancer

Abstract

Most common breast cancer susceptibility variants have been identified through genome-wide association studies (GWASs) of predominantly estrogen receptor (ER)-positive disease. We conducted a GWAS using 21,468 ER-negative cases and 100,594 controls combined with 18,908 BRCA1 mutation carriers (9,414 with breast cancer), all of European origin. We identified independent associations at P<5x10$^{-8}$ with 10 variants at nine novel loci. At P< 0.05, we replicated associations with 10 of 11 variants previously reported in ER-negative or BRCA1 mutation carrier GWASs, and observed consistent associations with ER-negative disease for 105 susceptibility variants identified by other breast cancer GWASs. These 125 variants explain approximately 16% of the familial risk of this breast cancer subtype. There was high genetic correlation (0.72) between risk of ER-negative breast cancer and breast cancer risk for BRCA1 carriers. These findings will likely lead to improved risk prediction and inform further fine-mapping and functional work to better understand the biological basis of ER-negative breast cancer.