Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 27, 2026

Changes in Mammary Gland Morphology and Breast Cancer Risk in Rats
Published on: October 16, 2010
Gene-environment interaction and risk of breast cancer
Anja Rudolph1, Jenny Chang-Claude1,2, Marjanka K Schmidt3,4
1Unit of Genetic Epidemiology, Division of Cancer Epidemiology, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Im Neuenheimer Feld 581, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany.
Abstract:
Hereditary, genetic factors as well as lifestyle and environmental factors, for example, parity and body mass index, predict breast cancer development. Gene-environment interaction studies may help to identify subgroups of women at high-risk of breast cancer and can be leveraged to discover new genetic risk factors. A few interesting results in studies including over 30,000 breast cancer cases and healthy controls indicate that such interactions exist. Explorative gene-environment interaction studies aiming to identify new genetic or environmental factors are scarce and still underpowered. Gene-environment interactions might be stronger for rare genetic variants, but data are lacking. Ongoing initiatives to genotype larger sample sets in combination with comprehensive epidemiologic databases will provide further opportunities to study gene-environment interactions in breast cancer. However, based on the available evidence, we conclude that associations between the common genetic variants known today and breast cancer risk are only weakly modified by environmental factors, if at all.
Related Concept Videos
Gene-Environment Interactions
Background and Environment Affect Phenotype
An example of how genetic background affects phenotype can be seen in horses. The Extension gene in horses is responsible for their coat color. A wild-type gene (EE) produces black pigment in the coat, while a mutant gene (ee) produces red pigment. A...
Cancer Prevention
Some...
The Tumor Microenvironment
The Tumor Microenvironment
Causes of Social Behavior III: Biological and Environmental Influences

