Nutrition-Related Biomarkers in Predicting Breast Cancer Risk in Women

RATIONALE: Studying samples of blood from patients with cancer in the laboratory may help doctors learn more about nutrition-related changes that identify biomarkers related to cancer. It may also help doctors predict a woman's risk of developing breast cancer. PURPOSE: This laboratory study is looking at nutrition-related biomarkers in predicting breast cancer risk in women.

OBJECTIVES: * To complete characterization of metabolic serotypes based on the metabolome, and to adapt these profiles for human epidemiological studies. * To determine the extent to which metabolic profiles that are reflective of or independent of long-term caloric intake predict breast cancer risk in nested case-control studies. * To identify critical serum metabolites. OUTLINE: Laboratory studies, including metabolome profiling by high performance liquid chromatography; and small molecule identification by mass spectroscopy, are performed on previously collected blood samples.