Breast Cancer Risk Factors and Epigenetic Age Acceleration

PROJECT NARRATIVE African American women are less likely of being diagnosed with breast cancer compared to white women, but they have a greater risk of dying from the disease. This mortality difference may be explained by an earlier age of onset for breast cancer among African American women. Epigenetics measures the interaction between genetics and the environment and may provide a molecular underpinning for racial disparities in breast cancer. In this project, we will examine the impact of epigenetic age on the effect of known breast cancer environmental and lifestyle risk factors as it relates to breast cancer risk and then evaluate racially differences