Catechol-O-Methyltransferase (COMT) gene polymorphism and breast cancer risk in young women

Oestrogen exposure has long been considered to be a main risk factor of breast cancer. More recently, interest has also focused on the possible carcinogenic influence from oestrogen metabolites, such as catechol oestrogens. O-methylation, catalysed by Catechol-O-Methyltransferase (COMT), is one pathway by which the potentially carcinogenic catechol oestrogens can be inactivated. The gene coding for COMT protein contains a single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), resulting in an amino acid shift Val-->Met, which has been shown to determine high- and low-activity configuration of the enzyme. We hypothesized that the low-activity allele, COMT(Met), may be implicated in early onset breast cancer. In the present case-control study, including 126 young breast cancer patients (