| 1. |
- Law, Philip J., et al.
(author)
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Association analyses identify 31 new risk loci for colorectal cancer susceptibility
- 2019
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In: Nature Communications. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2041-1723. ; 10
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide, and has a strong heritable basis. We report a genome-wide association analysis of 34,627 CRC cases and 71,379 controls of European ancestry that identifies SNPs at 31 new CRC risk loci. We also identify eight independent risk SNPs at the new and previously reported European CRC loci, and a further nine CRC SNPs at loci previously only identified in Asian populations. We use in situ promoter capture Hi-C (CHi-C), gene expression, and in silico annotation methods to identify likely target genes of CRC SNPs. Whilst these new SNP associations implicate target genes that are enriched for known CRC pathways such as Wnt and BMP, they also highlight novel pathways with no prior links to colorectal tumourigenesis. These findings provide further insight into CRC susceptibility and enhance the prospects of applying genetic risk scores to personalised screening and prevention.
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| 2. |
- Went, Molly, et al.
(author)
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Genetic correlation between multiple myeloma and chronic lymphocytic leukaemia provides evidence for shared aetiology
- 2018
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In: Blood Cancer Journal. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2044-5385. ; 9:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The clustering of different types of B-cell malignancies in families raises the possibility of shared aetiology. To examine this, we performed cross-trait linkage disequilibrium (LD)-score regression of multiple myeloma (MM) and chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) genome-wide association study (GWAS) data sets, totalling 11,734 cases and 29,468 controls. A significant genetic correlation between these two B-cell malignancies was shown (Rg = 0.4, P = 0.0046). Furthermore, four of the 45 known CLL risk loci were shown to associate with MM risk and five of the 23 known MM risk loci associate with CLL risk. By integrating eQTL, Hi-C and ChIP-seq data, we show that these pleiotropic risk loci are enriched for B-cell regulatory elements and implicate B-cell developmental genes. These data identify shared biological pathways influencing the development of CLL and, MM and further our understanding of the aetiological basis of these B-cell malignancies.
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| 3. |
- Disney-Hogg, Linden, et al.
(author)
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Impact of atopy on risk of glioma : a Mendelian randomisation study
- 2018
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In: BMC Medicine. - : BioMed Central. - 1741-7015. ; 16
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background: An inverse relationship between allergies with glioma risk has been reported in several but not all epidemiological observational studies. We performed an analysis of genetic variants associated with atopy to assess the relationship with glioma risk using Mendelian randomisation (MR), an approach unaffected by biases from temporal variability and reverse causation that might have affected earlier investigations.Methods: Two-sample MR was undertaken using genome-wide association study data. We used single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with atopic dermatitis, asthma and hay fever, IgE levels, and self-reported allergy as instrumental variables. We calculated MR estimates for the odds ratio (OR) for each risk factor with glioma using SNP-glioma estimates from 12,488 cases and 18,169 controls, using inverse-variance weighting (IVW), maximum likelihood estimation (MLE), weighted median estimate (WME) and mode-based estimate (MBE) methods. Violation of MR assumptions due to directional pleiotropy were sought using MR-Egger regression and HEIDI-outlier analysis.Results: Under IVW, MLE, WME and MBE methods, associations between glioma risk with asthma and hay fever, self-reported allergy and IgE levels were non-significant. An inverse relationship between atopic dermatitis and glioma risk was found by IVW (OR 0.96, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.93-1.00, P = 0.041) and MLE (OR 0.96, 95% CI 0.94-0.99, P = 0.003), but not by WME (OR 0.96, 95% CI 0.91-1.01, P = 0.114) or MBE (OR 0.97, 95% CI 0.92-1.02, P = 0.194).Conclusions: Our investigation does not provide strong evidence for relationship between atopy and the risk of developing glioma, but findings do not preclude a small effect in relation to atopic dermatitis. Our analysis also serves to illustrate the value of using several MR methods to derive robust conclusions.
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| 4. |
- Disney-Hogg, Linden, et al.
(author)
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Influence of obesity-related risk factors in the aetiology of glioma
- 2018
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In: British Journal of Cancer. - : Nature Publishing Group. - 0007-0920 .- 1532-1827. ; 118:7, s. 1020-1027
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- BACKGROUND: Obesity and related factors have been implicated as possible aetiological factors for the development of glioma in epidemiological observation studies. We used genetic markers in a Mendelian randomisation framework to examine whether obesity-related traits influence glioma risk. This methodology reduces bias from confounding and is not affected by reverse causation. METHODS: Genetic instruments were identified for 10 key obesity-related risk factors, and their association with glioma risk was evaluated using data from a genome-wide association study of 12,488 glioma patients and 18,169 controls. The estimated odds ratio of glioma associated with each of the genetically defined obesity-related traits was used to infer evidence for a causal relationship. RESULTS: No convincing association with glioma risk was seen for genetic instruments for body mass index, waist-to-hip ratio, lipids, type-2 diabetes, hyperglycaemia or insulin resistance. Similarly, we found no evidence to support a relationship between obesity-related traits with subtypes of glioma-glioblastoma (GBM) or non-GBM tumours. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides no evidence to implicate obesity-related factors as causes of glioma.
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| 5. |
- Saunders, Charlie N., et al.
(author)
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Lack of association between modifiable exposures and glioma risk : a Mendelian randomization analysis
- 2020
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In: Neuro-Oncology. - : OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC. - 1522-8517 .- 1523-5866. ; 22:2, s. 207-215
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Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background. The etiological basis of glioma is poorly understood. We have used genetic markers in a Mendelian randomization (MR) framework to examine if lifestyle, cardiometabolic, and inflammatory factors influence the risk of glioma. This methodology reduces bias from confounding and is not affected by reverse causation. Methods. We identified genetic instruments for 37 potentially modifiable risk factors and evaluated their association with glioma risk using data from a genome-wide association study of 12488 glioma patients and 18169 controls. We used the estimated odds ratio of glioma associated with each of the genetically defined traits to infer evidence for a causal relationship with the following exposures: Lifestyle and dietary factors-height, plasma insulin-like growth factor 1, blood carnitine, blood methionine, blood selenium, blood zinc, circulating adiponectin, circulating carotenoids, iron status, serum calcium, vitamins (A1, B12, B6, E, and 25-hydroxyvitamin D), fatty acid levels (monounsaturated, omega-3, and omega-6) and circulating fetuin-A; Cardiometabolic factors-birth weight, high density lipoprotein cholesterol, low density lipoprotein cholesterol, total cholesterol, total triglycerides, basal metabolic rate, body fat percentage, body mass index, fasting glucose, fasting proinsulin, glycated hemoglobin levels, diastolic and systolic blood pressure, waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio; and Inflammatory factors- C-reactive protein, plasma interleukin-6 receptor subunit alpha and serum immunoglobulin E. Results. After correction for the testing of multiple potential risk factors and excluding associations driven by one single nucleotide polymorphism, no significant association with glioma risk was observed (ie, P-Corrected > 0.05). Conclusions. This study did not provide evidence supporting any of the 37 factors examined as having a significant influence on glioma risk.
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| 6. |
- Takahashi, Hannah, et al.
(author)
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Mendelian randomisation study of the relationship between vitamin D and risk of glioma
- 2018
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In: Scientific Reports. - : Nature Publishing Group. - 2045-2322. ; 8
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- To examine for a causal relationship between vitamin D and glioma risk we performed an analysis of genetic variants associated with serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH) D) levels using Mendelian randomisation (MR), an approach unaffected by biases from confounding. Two-sample MR was undertaken using genome-wide association study data. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with 25(OH) D levels were used as instrumental variables (IVs). We calculated MR estimates for the odds ratio (OR) for 25(OH) D levels with glioma using SNP-glioma estimates from 12,488 cases and 18,169 controls, using inverse-variance weighted (IVW) and maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) methods. A non-significant association between 25(OH) D levels and glioma risk was shown using both the IVW (OR = 1.21, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.90-1.62, P = 0.201) and MLE (OR = 1.20, 95% CI = 0.98-1.48, P = 0.083) methods. In an exploratory analysis of tumour subtype, an inverse relationship between 25(OH)D levels and glioblastoma (GBM) risk was identified using the MLE method (OR = 0.62, 95% CI = 0.43-0.89, P = 0.010), but not the IVW method (OR = 0.62, 95% CI = 0.37-1.04, P = 0.070). No statistically significant association was shown between 25(OH) D levels and non-GBM glioma. Our results do not provide evidence for a causal relationship between 25(OH) D levels and all forms of glioma risk. More evidence is required to explore the relationship between 25(OH) D levels and risk of GBM.
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| 7. |
- Thomas, Minta, et al.
(author)
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Combining Asian and European genome-wide association studies of colorectal cancer improves risk prediction across racial and ethnic populations
- 2023
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In: Nature Communications. - : Springer Nature. - 2041-1723. ; 14:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Polygenic risk scores (PRS) have great potential to guide precision colorectal cancer (CRC) prevention by identifying those at higher risk to undertake targeted screening. However, current PRS using European ancestry data have sub-optimal performance in non-European ancestry populations, limiting their utility among these populations. Towards addressing this deficiency, we expand PRS development for CRC by incorporating Asian ancestry data (21,731 cases; 47,444 controls) into European ancestry training datasets (78,473 cases; 107,143 controls). The AUC estimates (95% CI) of PRS are 0.63(0.62-0.64), 0.59(0.57-0.61), 0.62(0.60-0.63), and 0.65(0.63-0.66) in independent datasets including 1681-3651 cases and 8696-115,105 controls of Asian, Black/African American, Latinx/Hispanic, and non-Hispanic White, respectively. They are significantly better than the European-centric PRS in all four major US racial and ethnic groups (p-values < 0.05). Further inclusion of non-European ancestry populations, especially Black/African American and Latinx/Hispanic, is needed to improve the risk prediction and enhance equity in applying PRS in clinical practice.
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| 8. |
- Law, Philip J., et al.
(author)
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Genome-wide association analysis of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, Hodgkin lymphoma and multiple myeloma identifies pleiotropic risk loci
- 2017
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In: Scientific Reports. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2045-2322. ; 7
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- B-cell malignancies (BCM) originate from the same cell of origin, but at different maturation stages and have distinct clinical phenotypes. Although genetic risk variants for individual BCMs have been identified, an agnostic, genome-wide search for shared genetic susceptibility has not been performed. We explored genome-wide association studies of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL, N = 1,842), Hodgkin lymphoma (HL, N = 1,465) and multiple myeloma (MM, N = 3,790). We identified a novel pleiotropic risk locus at 3q22.2 (NCK1, rs11715604, P = 1.60 × 10-9) with opposing effects between CLL (P = 1.97 × 10-8) and HL (P = 3.31 × 10-3). Eight established non-HLA risk loci showed pleiotropic associations. Within the HLA region, Ser37 + Phe37 in HLA-DRB1 (P = 1.84 × 10-12) was associated with increased CLL and HL risk (P = 4.68 × 10-12), and reduced MM risk (P = 1.12 × 10-2), and Gly70 in HLA-DQB1 (P = 3.15 × 10-10) showed opposing effects between CLL (P = 3.52 × 10-3) and HL (P = 3.41 × 10-9). By integrating eQTL, Hi-C and ChIP-seq data, we show that the pleiotropic risk loci are enriched for B-cell regulatory elements, as well as an over-representation of binding of key B-cell transcription factors. These data identify shared biological pathways influencing the development of CLL, HL and MM. The identification of these risk loci furthers our understanding of the aetiological basis of BCMs.
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| 9. |
- Li, Ni L., et al.
(author)
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Genetic Predisposition to Multiple Myeloma at 5q15 Is Mediated by an ELL2 Enhancer Polymorphism
- 2017
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In: Cell Reports. - : Elsevier BV. - 2211-1247. ; 20:11, s. 2556-2564
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Multiple myeloma (MM) is a malignancy of plasma cells. Genome-wide association studies have shown that variation at 5q15 influences MM risk. Here, we have sought to decipher the causal variant at 5q15 and the mechanism by which it influences tumorigenesis. We show that rs6877329 G > C resides in a predicted enhancer element that physically interacts with the transcription start site of ELL2. The rs6877329-C risk allele is associated with reduced enhancer activity and lowered ELL2 expression. Since ELL2 is critical to the B cell differentiation process, reduced ELL2 expression is consistent with inherited genetic variation contributing to arrest of plasma cell development, facilitating MM clonal expansion. These data provide evidence for a biological mechanism underlying a hereditary risk of MM at 5q15.
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| 10. |
- Sud, Amit, et al.
(author)
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Genome-wide association study implicates immune dysfunction in the development of Hodgkin lymphoma
- 2018
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In: Blood. - : American Society of Hematology. - 1528-0020 .- 0006-4971. ; 132:19, s. 2040-2052
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- To further our understanding of inherited susceptibility to Hodgkin lymphoma (HL), we performed a meta-analysis of seven genome-wide association studies totalling 5,325 HL cases and 22,423 controls. We identify five new HL risk loci at 6p21.31 (rs649775, P = 2.11 × 10-10), 6q23.3 (rs1002658, P = 2.97 × 10-8), 11q23.1 (rs7111520, P = 1.44 × 10-11), 16p11.2 (rs6565176, P = 4.00 × 10-8) and 20q13.12 (rs2425752, P = 2.01 × 10-8). Integration of gene expression, histone modification and in situ promoter capture Hi-C data at the five new and 13 known risk loci implicates dysfunction of the germinal centre reaction, disrupted T-cell differentiation and function, and constitutive NF-κB activation as mechanisms of predisposition. These data provide further insights into the genetic susceptibility and biology of HL.
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