
- Vanderbilt University United States
- Karolinska Institute Sweden
- McGill University Canada
- University of Massachusetts Amherst United States
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill United States
- University of Salford United Kingdom
- National University of Singapore Singapore
- University of California, Irvine United States
- Miami University United States
- University of California System United States
- Utrecht University Netherlands
- International Agency For Research On Cancer France
- KU Leuven Belgium
- National Institutes of Health United States
- University of Copenhagen Denmark
- Leiden University Netherlands
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention United States
- University System of Ohio United States
- University of Toronto Canada
- Max Planck Society Germany
- University of Pisa Italy
- Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey United States
- Institute of Cancer Research United Kingdom
- Mayo Clinic United States
- King's College London United Kingdom
- Robert Bosch (Germany) Germany
- University of Erlangen-Nuremberg Germany
- Seoul National University Korea (Republic of)
- University of Southampton United Kingdom
- Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres Germany
- University of Oxford United Kingdom
- University of California, Los Angeles United States
- University of Paris-Saclay France
- Mayo Clinic United States
- University of Melbourne Australia
- Imperial College London United Kingdom
- City Of Hope National Medical Center United States
- American Cancer Society United States
- Ruhr University Bochum Germany
- University of Warwick United Kingdom
- University of London United Kingdom
- Roswell Park Cancer Institute United States
- University of Oslo Norway
- Erasmus University Rotterdam Netherlands
- Universität Hamburg Germany
- University of Cologne Germany
- Kaiser Permanente United States
- Institute Curie France
- Agency for Science, Technology and Research Singapore
- QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute Australia
- University of Malaya Malaysia
- Hannover Medical School Germany
- Inserm France
- University of Hawaiʻi Sea Grant United States
- University of Tübingen Germany
- German Cancer Research Center Germany
- China Medical University Taiwan
- Amsterdam UMC - Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Netherlands
- Pomeranian Medical University Poland
- Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz Germany
- Cancer Research UK United Kingdom
- Cancer Council Victoria Australia
- Academy of Athens Greece
- Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Netherlands
- Heidelberg University Germany
- Erasmus University Rotterdam Netherlands
- Harvard University United States
- University of Oulu Finland
- University of Kansas United States
- Leiden University Medical Center Netherlands
- Instituto de Salud Carlos III Spain
- National Defense Medical Center Taiwan
- Université Laval Canada
- The Alfred Hospital Australia
- Millennium Institute Brazil
- Institute for Cancer Prevention United States
- University of Helsinki Finland
- University of Sheffield United Kingdom
- University of Cambridge United Kingdom
- The Ohio State University United States
- Stanford University United States
- University of Sydney Australia
- Academia Sinica Taiwan
- University of Eastern Finland Finland
- Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie Belgium
- National University of Ireland, Galway Ireland
- Ministry of Public Health Thailand
Estrogen receptor (ER)-negative tumors represent 20-30% of all breast cancers, with a higher proportion occurring in younger women and women of African ancestry. The etiology and clinical behavior of ER-negative tumors are different from those of tumors expressing ER (ER positive), including differences in genetic predisposition. To identify susceptibility loci specific to ER-negative disease, we combined in a metaanalysis 3 genome-wide association studies of 4,193 ER-negative breast cancer cases and 35,194 controls with a series of 40 follow-up studies (6,514 cases and 41,455 controls), genotyped using a custom Illumina array, iCOGS, developed by the Collaborative Oncological Gene-environment Study (COGS). SNPs at four loci, 1q32.1 (MDM4, P= 2.1 x 10(-12) and LGR6, P = 1.4 x 10(-8)), 2p24.1 (P = 4.6 x 10(-8)) and 16q12.2 (FTO, P = 4.0 x 10(-8)), were associated with ER-negative but not ER-positive breast cancer (P> 0.05). These findings provide further evidence for distinct etiological pathways associated with invasive ER-positive and ER-negative breast cancers.