Psychosocial stressors and breast cancer gene expression in the Black Women’s Health Study

Purpose Prior studies indicate that the physiologic response to stress can affect gene expression. We evaluated differential gene expression in breast cancers collected from Black women with high versus low exposure to psychosocial stressors. Methods We analyzed tumor RNA sequencing data from 417 Black Women’s Health Study breast cancer cases with data on early life trauma and neighborhood disadvantage. We conducted age-adjusted differential gene expression analyses and pathway analyses. We also evaluated Conserved Transcriptional Response to Adversity (CTRA) contrast scores, relative fractions of immune cell types, T cell exhaustion, and adrenergic signaling. Analyses were run separately for estrogen receptor positive (ER+; n = 299) and ER− ( n = 118) cases. Results Among ER+ cases, the top differentially expressed pathways by stress exposure were related to RNA and protein metabolism. Among ER− cases, they were related to developmental biology, signal transduction, metabolism, and the immune system. Targeted analyses indicated greater immune pathway enrichment with stress exposure for ER− cases, and possible relevance of adrenergic signaling for ER+ cases. CTRA contrast scores did not differ by stress exposure, but in analyses of the CTRA components, ER− breast cancer cases with high neighborhood disadvantage had higher pro-inflammatory gene expression ( p = 0.039) and higher antibody gene expression ( p = 0.006) compared to those with low neighborhood disadvantage. Conclusion There are multiple pathways through which psychosocial stress exposure may influence breast tumor biology. Given the present findings on inflammation and immune response in ER− tumors, further research to identify stress-induced changes in the etiology and progression of ER− breast cancer is warranted.