Abstract

Most cases of breast and prostate cancer are not associated with mutations in known high-penetrance genes, indicating the involvement of multiple low-penetrance risk alleles. Studies that have attempted to identify these genes have met with limited success. The National Cancer Institute Breast and Prostate Cancer Cohort Consortium ? a pooled analysis of multiple large cohort studies with a total of more than 5,000 cases of breast cancer and 8,000 cases of prostate cancer ? was therefore initiated. The goal of this consortium is to characterize variations in approximately 50 genes that mediate two pathways that are associated with these cancers ? the steroid-hormone metabolism pathway and the insulin-like growth factor signalling pathway ? and to associate these variations with cancer risk.

Author affiliations

1. Members of the BPC3 who have agreed to be named are listed in Box 2.

Correspondence to: David Hunter at the Program in Molecular and Genetic Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, 677 Huntington avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
Email: dhunter@hsph.harvard.edu

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