Integrative, genome-wide association study identifies chemicals associated with common women's malignancies

Abstract Background Breast cancer, cervical cancer, and ovarian cancer are three of the most commonly diagnosed malignancies in women, and more cancer prevention research is urgently needed. Methods Summary data of a large genome-wide association study of female cancers were derived from the UK biobank. We performed a transcriptome-wide association study and a gene set enrichment analysis to identify correlations between chemical exposure and aberrant expression, repression, or mutation of genes related to cancer using the Comparative Toxicogenomics Database. Results We identified five chemicals (NSC668394, glafenine, methylnitronitrosoguanidine, fenofibrate, and methylparaben) that were associated with the incidence of both breast cancer and cervical cancer. Conclusion Using a transcriptome-wide association study and gene set enrichment analysis we identified environmental chemicals that are associated with an increased risk of breast cancer, cervical cancer, and ovarian cancer.