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Towards An Integrated Model For Breast Cancer Etiology: The Lifelong Interplay Of Genes, Lifestyle, And Hormones, Susan E. Hankinson, Graham A. Colditz, Walter C. Willett

Susan E. Hankinson

While the association of a number of risk factors, such as family history and reproductive patterns, with breast cancer has been well established for many years, work in the past 10–15 years also has added substantially to our understanding of disease etiology. Contributions of particular note include the delineation of the role of endogenous and exogenous estrogens to breast cancer risk, and the discovery and quantification of risk associated with several gene mutations (e.g. BRCA1). Although it is difficult to integrate all epidemiologic data into a single biologic model, it is clear that several important components or pathways exist. Early …