Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Maximizing resources to study an uncommon cancer: E2C2—Epidemiology of Endometrial Cancer Consortium

  • Brief Report
  • Published:
Cancer Causes & Control Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Endometrial cancer affects more than 40,000 women a year in the U.S. While the association of this disease with high body mass index and sex steroid hormones is well known, there are many questions about etiology that have not been resolved. Little is known about the genetic basis for risk associated with hormones or obesity, other common genetic factors associated with risk, or gene–environment interactions. E2C2, the Epidemiology of Endometrial Cancer Consortium, was formed in 2006 to provide a collaborative environment for addressing these questions by pooling data from existing studies. This allows for investigations of uncommon risk factors, risk for rare histologic subtypes, and associations within strata that cannot be achieved in individual studies. This report describes the establishment of the consortium, ongoing projects that demonstrate the advantages of collaborative efforts, and challenges faced. Overall, the consortium promises to provide an important means of furthering our knowledge about this cancer.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

References

  1. American Cancer Society (2008) Cancer facts and figures 2008. American Cancer Society, Atlanta

  2. Key TJ, Pike MC (1988) The dose-effect relationship between ‘unopposed’ oestrogens and endometrial mitotic rate: its central role in explaining and predicting endometrial cancer risk. Br J Cancer 57(2):205–212

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Potischman N, Hoover RN, Brinton LA, Siiteri P, Dorgan JF, Swanson CA et al (1996) Case-control study of endogenous steroid hormones and endometrial cancer. J Natl Cancer Inst 88(16):1127–1135. doi:10.1093/jnci/88.16.1127 Aug 21

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Lukanova A, Lundin E, Micheli A, Arslan A, Ferrari P, Rinaldi S et al (2004) Circulating levels of sex steroid hormones and risk of endometrial cancer in postmenopausal women. Int J Cancer 108(3):425–432. doi:10.1002/ijc.11529

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Zheng W, Chow WH, Yang G, Jin F, Rothman N, Blair A, Li HL, Wen W, Ji BT, Li Q, Shu XO, Gao YT (2005) The Shanghai Women’s Health Study: rationale, study design, and baseline characteristics. Am J Epidemiol 162(11):1123–1131. doi:10.1093/aje/kwi322

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Kolonel LN, Altshuler D, Henderson BE (2004) The Multiethnic Cohort Study: exploring genes, lifestyle and cancer risk. Nat Rev 4(7):519–527

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Haiman CA, Stram DO, Pike MC, Kolonel LN, Burtt NP, Altshuler D et al (2003) A comprehensive haplotype analysis of CYP19 and breast cancer risk: the Multiethnic Cohort. Hum Mol Genet 12(20):2679–2692. doi:10.1093/hmg/ddg294

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Berstein LM, Imyanitov EN, Kovalevskij AJ, Maximov SJ, Vasilyev DA, Buslov KG et al (2004) CYP17 and CYP19 genetic polymorphisms in endometrial cancer: association with intratumoral aromatase activity. Cancer Lett 207(2):191–196. doi:10.1016/j.canlet.2004.01.001

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Paynter RA, Hankinson SE, Colditz GA, Kraft P, Hunter DJ, De Vivo I (2005) CYP19 (aromatase) haplotypes and endometrial cancer risk. Int J Cancer 116(2):267–274. doi:10.1002/ijc.21041

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Tao MH, Cai Q, Zhang ZF, Xu WH, Kataoka N, Wen W et al (2007) Polymorphisms in the CYP19A1 (Aromatase) gene and endometrial cancer risk in Chinese women. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 16(5):943–949. doi:10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-06-1012

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Olson SH, Orlow I, Bayuga S, Sima C, Bandera EV, Pulick K et al (2008) Variants in hormone biosynthesis genes and risk of endometrial cancer. Cancer Causes Control. Apr 25 (Epub ahead of print)

  12. Haiman CA, Dossus L, Setiawan VW, Stram DO, Dunning AM, Thomas G et al (2007) Genetic variation at the CYP19A1 locus predicts circulating estrogen levels but not breast cancer risk in postmenopausal women. Cancer Res 67(5):1893–1897. doi:10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-06-4123

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Setiawan VW, Doherty JA, Shu X, Akbari MR, Chen C, De Vivo I et al (2009) Two estrogen-related variants in CYP19A1 and endometrial cancer risk: a pooled analysis in E2C2. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 18(1):242–247

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Goodman MT, Wilkens LR, Hankin JH, Lyu LC, Wu AH, Kolonel LN (1997) Association of soy and fiber consumption with the risk of endometrial cancer. Am J Epidemiol 146(4):294–306

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Horn-Ross PL, John EM, Canchola AJ, Stewart SL, Lee MM (2003) Phytoestrogen intake and endometrial cancer risk. J Natl Cancer Inst 95(15):1158–1164

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Xu WH, Dai Q, Xiang YB, Long JR, Ruan ZX, Cheng JR et al (2007) Interaction of soy food and tea consumption with CYP19A1 genetic polymorphisms in the development of endometrial cancer. Am J Epidemiol 7(12):1420–1430. doi:10.1093/aje/kwm242

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Sherman ME, Sturgeon S, Brinton LA, Potischman N, Kurman RJ, Berman ML et al (1997) Risk factors and hormone levels in patients with serous and endometrioid uterine carcinomas. Mod Pathol 10(10):963–968

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Bjorge T, Engeland A, Tretli S, Weiderpass E (2007) Body size in relation to cancer of the uterine corpus in 1 million Norwegian women. Int J Cancer 120(2):378–383. doi:10.1002/ijc.22260

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. World Cancer Research Fund/American Institute for Cancer Research (2007) Food, nutrition, physical activity, and the prevention of cancer: a global perspective. AICR, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  20. Zhou B, Yang L, Sun Q, Cong R, Gu H, Tang N et al (2008) Cigarette smoking and the risk of endometrial cancer: a meta-analysis. Am J Med 121(6):501–508. doi:10.1016/j.amjmed.2008.01.044

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We thank the Robert Howard Family Foundation for its gift to MSKCC that enabled the establishment of the E2C2 database. We thank Dana Christo, Heather Feigelson, Marc Goodman, Timothy Rebbeck, Daniela Seminara, Elisabete Weiderpass, and Anne Zeleniuch-Jacquotte for their participation in the development of E2C2.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, 307 East 63 Street, New York, NY, 10065, USA

    Sara H. Olson

  2. Program in Epidemiology, Division of Public Health Sciences, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, USA

    Chu Chen & Jennifer A. Doherty

  3. Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Chu Chen

  4. Department of Otolaryngology: Head and Neck Surgery, School of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Chu Chen

  5. Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Immaculata De Vivo

  6. Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA

    Immaculata De Vivo

  7. Epidemiology & Genetics Research Program, Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA

    Virginia Hartmuller, Shannon M. Lynch & Leah Sansbury

  8. Northern California Cancer Center, Fremont, CA, USA

    Pamela L. Horn-Ross

  9. Hormonal and Reproductive Epidemiology Branch, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, Rockville, MD, USA

    James V. Lacey Jr.

  10. Department of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    V. Wendy Setiawan

  11. Department of Epidemiology, GROW – School for Oncology and Developmental Biology, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

    Leo J. Schouten

  12. Vanderbilt Epidemiology Center, Vanderbilt Institute of Medicine and Public Health, Nashville, TN, USA

    Xiao Ou Shu

  13. Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA

    Xiao Ou Shu

  14. Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, Nashville, TN, USA

    Xiao Ou Shu

Authors
  1. Sara H. Olson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Chu Chen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Immaculata De Vivo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Jennifer A. Doherty
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Virginia Hartmuller
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Pamela L. Horn-Ross
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. James V. Lacey Jr.
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Shannon M. Lynch
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Leah Sansbury
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. V. Wendy Setiawan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  11. Leo J. Schouten
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  12. Xiao Ou Shu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sara H. Olson.

Electronic supplementary material

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Olson, S.H., Chen, C., De Vivo, I. et al. Maximizing resources to study an uncommon cancer: E2C2—Epidemiology of Endometrial Cancer Consortium. Cancer Causes Control 20, 491–496 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-008-9290-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-008-9290-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation