Ataxia telangiectasia-mutated rs56009889 and risk of common cancers

A polymorphic variant in the ataxia telangiectasia-mutated ( ATM ) gene, rs56009889, was recently associated with an increased risk of lung cancer. We studied the role of this variant in the etiology of other cancers. Data from three population-based case-control studies of colon, breast, and lung cancer were used. Participants in these studies (4517 cases, 3383 controls) underwent a genome-wide association study using 500K Illumina OncoArray. The frequency of the AG/AA genotypes differed between Ashkenazi (4.6%) and Sephardi (0.2%) Jews ( P  < 0.001). AG/AA frequency was significantly higher in Ashkenazi lung cancer (11.9%) than in controls (2.8%) [adjusted odds ratio (OR) = 5.4]. Females had a higher risk than males (OR = 12.8 versus 3.5). The adjusted OR for colorectal cancer was 1.40 [95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.01-2.0, P  = 0.045] and for breast cancer was 1.43 (95% CI = 1.01-2.04, P  = 0.046). Never-smokers variant carriers were at higher risk of lung and colon, but not breast, cancer. Cases with the AG/AA genotype had lower mean age at diagnosis, but this difference was significant only for breast cancer (-3.2 years, P  = 0.007). No associations were observed with overall survival. Among the breast cancer subjects, the OR for having triple-negative tumors was 0.45 for AG/AA versus GG genotype (95% CI = 0.2-0.9, P  = 0.02). We confirm the strong association between ATM rs56009889 and lung cancer risk in Ashkenazi Jews and report a mild association with the risk of breast cancer and colorectal cancer.