Robert A Vierkant

BACKGROUND: There is suggestive evidence that inflammation is related to ovarian cancer survival. However, more research is needed to identify inflammation-related factors that are associated with ovarian cancer survival and to determine th…

To investigate the association between self-reported endometriosis and the putative functional promoter +331C/T single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and the PROGINS allele.

We aimed to validate the prognostic association of p16 expression in ovarian high-grade serous carcinomas (HGSC) and to explore it in other ovarian carcinoma histotypes. p16 protein expression was assessed by clinical-grade immunohistochemi…

To identify common alleles associated with different histotypes of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC), we pooled data from multiple genome-wide genotyping projects totaling 25,509 EOC cases and 40,941 controls. We identified nine new susceptib…

BACKGROUND: Many epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) risk factors relate to hormone exposure and elevated estrogen levels are associated with obesity in postmenopausal women. Therefore, we hypothesized that gene-environment interactions related…

BackgroundRegulatory T (Treg) cells, a subset of CD4+ T lymphocytes, are mediators of immunosuppression in cancer, and, thus, variants in genes encoding Treg cell immune molecules could be associated with ovarian cancer.MethodsIn a populati…

BackgroundDespite a large body of literature evaluating the association between recreational physical activity and epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) risk, the extant evidence is inconclusive, and little is known about the independent associat…

ObjectiveClinical genetic testing is commercially available for rs61764370, an inherited variant residing in a KRAS 3' UTR microRNA binding site, based on suggested associations with increased ovarian and breast cancer risk as well as with …

Previously developed models for predicting absolute risk of invasive epithelial ovarian cancer have included a limited number of risk factors and have had low discriminatory power (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC…

Disruption in circadian gene expression, whether due to genetic variation or environmental factors (e.g., light at night, shiftwork), is associated with increased incidence of breast, prostate, gastrointestinal and hematologic cancers and g…

ObjectiveTo evaluate whether endometriosis-associated genetic variation affects risk of ovarian cancer.DesignPooled genetic analysis.SettingUniversity hospital.Patient(s)Genetic data from 46,176 participants (15,361 ovarian cancer cases and…

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified 12 epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) susceptibility alleles. The pattern of association at these loci is consistent in BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers who are at high risk of EOC. After…

ScopeWe reevaluated previously reported associations between variants in pathways of one-carbon (1-C) (folate) transfer genes and ovarian carcinoma (OC) risk, and in related pathways of purine and pyrimidine metabolism, and assessed interac…

Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is a heterogeneous cancer with both genetic and environmental risk factors. Variants influencing the risk of developing the less-common EOC subtypes have not been fully investigated. We performed a genome-wid…

A missense single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the immune modulatory gene IL1A has been associated with ovarian cancer risk (rs17561). Although the exact mechanism through which this SNP alters risk of ovarian cancer is not clearly unde…

Survival in epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is influenced by the host immune response, yet the key genetic determinants of inflammation and immunity that affect prognosis are not known. The nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) transcription factor fam…

BackgroundOvarian carcinoma is composed of five major histologic types, which associate with outcome and predict therapeutic response. Our aim was to evaluate histologic type assessments across the centers participating in the Ovarian Tumor…

PurposeThe majority of previous studies have observed an increased risk of mucinous ovarian tumors associated with cigarette smoking, but the association with other histological types is unclear. In a large pooled analysis, we examined the …

BACKGROUND: There are several well-established environmental risk factors for ovarian cancer, and recent genome-wide association studies have also identified six variants that influence disease risk. However, the interplay between such risk…

HNF1B is overexpressed in clear cell epithelial ovarian cancer, and we observed epigenetic silencing in serous epithelial ovarian cancer, leading us to hypothesize that variation in this gene differentially associates with epithelial ovaria…

Ovarian cancer remains the leading cause of death in women with gynecologic malignancies, despite surgical advances and the development of more effective chemotherapeutics. As increasing evidence indicates that clear-cell ovarian cancer may…

Whilst previous studies have reported that higher BMI increases a woman's risk of developing ovarian cancer, associations for the different histological subtypes have not been well defined. As the prevalence of obesity has increased dramati…

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association between self-reported endometriosis and the putative functional promoter +331C/T single nucleotide polymorphism and the PROGINS allele. DESIGN: Control subjects from ovarian cancer case-control stu…

Few risk factors for meningioma, aside from increasing age and female sex, have been identified. We investigated risk factors for meningioma in elderly women, a group with a high incidence. We evaluated associations of demographic, lifestyl…