Scientific rationale: Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is a common form of breast cancer, which rarely results in death. However, it can often progress to invasive breast cancer, which is more dangerous. It is known that your genetics affect your risk of invasive breast cancer in general, but not how they affect the chance of DCIS progressing to invasive breast cancer. Such information would help inform women about a crucial outcome following DCIS. It would also inform the clinical management of DCIS (how best to treat it, with a view to avoiding these progressions).
Research question: When you look at thousands of genetic alterations in tandem, this is called a “polygenic” analysis, and this can be summarized as a polygenic risk score (PRS). How does having a PRS in the highest 1%, 5%, and 10% of invasive BC risk affect the likelihood of DCIS progressing to invasive BC?
Objectives: Provide precise estimates of how being at elevated polygenic risk of breast cancer affects the chance of DCIS progressing to invasive BC.