Table 1 Characteristics of the studies and genotyping assays
Contributing studies | Design | Description of case subjects and ascertainment (age range) | Participation rates | Follow-up | P53 IHC* | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ABCS: Amsterdam Breast Cancer Study, The Netherlands [41] | Hospital-based consecutive cases | All operable breast cancer patients aged < 50 years diagnosed 1974-1994 in four Dutch hospitals (Amsterdam and Leiden) (23 to 50 years) | All patients with paraffin-embedded tissue blocks available (normal tissue) from the Pathology archives and successful DNA isolation (approximately 85%) | Active follow-up through the medical registries and general practitioners | By IHC staining of TMAs* as previously described [25]; p53 positive defined as > 10% of cells with positive nuclear staining. | Taqman |
HABCS: Germany: Hannover Breast Cancer Study and bilateral breast cancer patients [42, 43] | Hospital-based case-control studies | Case patients who received radiotherapy for breast cancer at Hannover Medical School between 1997 and 2003 (27 to 91 years) | Approximately 80% of case subjects contacted agreed to give a blood sample | Active follow-up at the Department of Radiation Oncology, Hannover Medical School | NA | Restriction enzyme-based assays |
HEBCS: | Hospital-based case-control study | Consecutive incident cases from the Department of Oncology, Helsinki University Central Hospital 1997-1998 (22 to 96 years) | 79% of the case subjects | Active follow-up of the medical records until five years and annual linkage to the nation-wide Finnish Cancer Registry | By IHC staining of TMAs* as previously described [10] and data for 23 cases derived from the pathology reports; p53 positive defined as > 20% of cells with positive nuclear staining. | RFLP (MDM2 SNP309) Amplifluor(tm) fluorescent genotyping (Kbiosciences) (TP53 R72P) |
SEARCH: Studies of Epidemiology and Risk Factors in Cancer Heredity, Cambridge, UK [45] | Population-based case-control study | Two groups of case patients (prevalent and incident) identified through East Anglian Cancer Registry: patients diagnosed before age 55 years in 1991 to 1996 and still alive when study started in 1996 and patients diagnosed before age 70 years since 1996 (25 to 65 years) | 64% of eligible case subjects provided a blood sample | Combination of passive follow-up through national death registrations and active follow up every five years by the cancer registry | NA | Taqman |