• Cancer Epidemiology Unit, Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Oxford, United Kingdom. kostas.tsilidis@ceu.ox.ac.uk

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified many single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with prostate cancer risk. There is limited information on the mechanistic basis of these associations, particularly about whether they interact with circulating concentrations of growth factors and sex hormones, which may be important in prostate cancer etiology. Using conditional logistic regression, the authors compared per-allele odds ratios for prostate cancer for 39 GWAS-identified SNPs across thirds (tertile groups) of circulating concentrations of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), insulin-like growth factor binding protein 3 (IGFBP-3), testosterone, androstenedione, androstanediol glucuronide, estradiol, and sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) for 3,043 cases and 3,478 controls in the Breast and Prostate Cancer Cohort Consortium. After allowing for multiple testing, none of the SNPs examined were significantly associated with growth factor or hormone concentrations, and the SNP-prostate cancer associations did not differ by these concentrations, although 4 interactions were marginally significant (MSMB-rs10993994 with androstenedione (uncorrected P = 0.008); CTBP2-rs4962416 with IGFBP-3 (uncorrected P = 0.003); 11q13.2-rs12418451 with IGF-1 (uncorrected P = 0.006); and 11q13.2-rs10896449 with SHBG (uncorrected P = 0.005)). The authors found no strong evidence that associations between GWAS-identified SNPs and prostate cancer are modified by circulating concentrations of IGF-1, sex hormones, or their major binding proteins.