Overall, methylation at the promoter region of BRCA1 was not associated with breast cancer risk (P = 0.88); of the 26 CpGs in this region that we examined, pooled ORs were consistent in direction with previous reports for 14, with cg20185525 having the largest OR (OR = 1.11, 95% CI = 0.99, 1.25). Here, BRCA1 is linked to breast carcinoma.