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Puyana et al. J Transl Genet Genom 2022;6:223-239 Journal of Translational
DOI: 10.20517/jtgg.2021.51
Genetics and Genomics

Original Article Open Access

Genetic predisposition to obesity and inflammation
in a tri-racial/ethnic breast cancer population

1
1
2
Carolina Puyana , Emma Schindler , Eunkyung Lee , Jennifer J. Hu 1,3
1
Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL 33136, USA.
2
Department of Health Sciences, University of Central Florida College of Health Professions and Sciences, Orlando, FL 32816,
USA.
3
Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL 33136, USA.
Correspondence to: Dr. Jennifer J. Hu, Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine,
1120 NW 14th Street, CRB 1511, Miami, FL 33136, USA. E-mail: jhu@med.miami.edu
How to cite this article: Puyana C, Schindler E, Lee E, Hu JJ. Genetic predisposition to obesity and inflammation in a tri-
racial/ethnic breast cancer population. J Transl Genet Genom 2022;6:223-239. https://dx.doi.org/10.20517/jtgg.2021.51

Received: 30 Sep 2021 First Decision: 6 Dec 2021 Revised: 12 Jan 2022 Accepted: 9 Feb 2022 Published: 18 May 2022

Academic Editors: Junxuan Lu, Nathan A. Berger Copy Editor: Xi-Jun Chen Production Editor: Xi-Jun Chen

Abstract
Aim: Multiple genes and genetic variants may contribute to racial/ethnic disparities in obesity-associated breast
cancer diagnosis and prognosis. Therefore, we evaluate whether racial/ethnic differences in polygenic risk score
(PRS) contribute to obesity and inflammatory biomarker in breast cancer patients.

Methods: In a tri-racial/ethnic population of 403 breast cancer patients, 21% African American (AA), 65%
Hispanic White (HW), and 14% non-Hispanic White (NHW), we evaluated racial/ethnic differences in obesity
PRS, the association between PRS and an inflammatory biomarker C-reactive protein (CRP), and its implication in
bariatric surgery eligibility. The obesity PRS was constructed via a weighted risk allele model using 35 obesity-
related single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). SAS version 9.3 for Windows (SAS Institute, Cary, NC, USA) was
used to perform the logistic regression analysis.

Results: About 74% of our study population were overweight or obese. The mean ± SD of obesity PRS was
45.03 ± 10.66 for obese patients and 39.36 ± 8.81 for non-obese patients (P < 0.0001). AA patients had a
significantly higher obesity PRS than HW and NHW (P < 0.0001). The obesity PRS significantly correlated with
body mass index and CRP levels (P < 0.0001) and was associated with bariatric surgery eligibility (OR = 4.32,
95%CI: 1.89-9.87).

© The Author(s) 2022. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, sharing,
adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, for any purpose, even commercially, as
long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and
indicate if changes were made.

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