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Study of Pregnancy Hormone Concentrations in Urban and Nomadic Mongolian Women

NCT01160549 · Status: COMPLETED · Type: OBSERVATIONAL · Enrollment: 412

Last updated 2020-03-16

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

International variation in breast cancer rates and data from migrant and animal studies support the possibility that exposures early in development, including the in utero period, play a role in breast carcinogenesis. One of the most striking prenatal influences on breast cancer risk is whether the woman was born in a country with a low or high breast cancer incidence. This observation has led to interest in the degree to which in utero exposures vary by the maternal environment, and to the hypothesis that alterations in prenatal concentrations of steroid hormones, particularly estrogens, and other biologic parameters to which the fetus is exposed mediate differences in subsequent breast cancer risk.

There are striking differences in breast cancer incidence rates between Asian and North American and Western European populations, but variation within Asia is also wide. Incidence in Mongolia is one of the lowest in the world (6.6/100,000) while China, its neighbor to the south, has about three times this rate (18.7/100,000). Furthermore, rates appear higher in urban than in rural areas. Over the last decade and a half Mongolia has experienced profound economic changes resulting in mass migration from a nomadic or semi-nomadic existence to a more western lifestyle in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar. Together with the contrast in exposures between traditional and urban settings, migration presents the opportunity to study women as they acculturate to a more western lifestyle.

We propose collecting maternal and cord blood samples from pregnant Mongolian women and their offspring living in rural and urban areas to describe concentrations of several steroid hormones and growth factors. The purpose of the study is to assess whether the in utero environment differs in women living a traditional lifestyle compared with a more urban lifestyle, and by degree of western acculturation among those who have recently migrated to the capital. Maternal and cord blood samples from an ongoing cohort study being conducted at the University of Pittsburgh will provide a comparison group of US women.

Conditions

  • Pregnancy

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • National Cancer Institute (NCI)

    lead NIH

Principal Investigators

  • Rebecca Troisi, D.Sc. · National Cancer Institute (NCI)

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Max Age
50 Years
Sex
FEMALE
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2010-08-01
Primary Completion
2013-07-15
Completion
2015-02-19

Countries

  • Mongolia

Study Locations

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Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT01160549 on ClinicalTrials.gov