Migraine and Possible Etiologic Heterogeneity for Double-Negative Breast Cancer

• Activity Number: 193
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Monday, August 10, 2015 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Biometrics Section
• Author(s): Min Shi* and Clarice R. Weinberg
• Companies: National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and NIH/NIEHS
• Keywords: cox regression ; prospective study ; retrospective study ; combined analysis ; breast cancer ; migraine

Abstract

When data are available on both retrospective and prospective studies, one can perform a composite analysis of the two with a Cox proportional hazard mode which is in essence logistic regression with fine stratification on the event time. We applied this novel composite analysis to study the relationship between migraine headache and breast cancer risk. Migraine in women is often timed with the menstrual cycle. Some studies have reported reduced risk of breast cancer in migraineurs but other failed to find such effects. To further examine this association, we used a cohort study of 50,884 women whose sister had breast cancer, in which 2,118 incident cases had accrued, and a sister-matched case-control study including 1,418 young onset breast cancer cases. We analyzed the two studies individually and also in tandem via a hybrid Cox model, examining subtypes of breast cancer in relation to menstrual and non-menstrual migraine. There was no overall association between breast cancer and history of migraine. However, women with non-menstrually-related migraine had increased while women with menstrually-related migraine had decreased risk of hormone receptor-negative (ER-/PR-) cancer.