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Epidemiology and Genetics Research Program
Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences
April 5 , 2007 |
EGRP NEWS FLASH
From the Epidemiology and Genetics Research Program
Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences
National Cancer Institute
New Request for Applications: Genome-Wide Studies in Biorepositories with Electronic Medical Record Data
Investigative groups affiliated with existing biorepositories can apply for
support to develop methods and procedures for performing genome-wide studies
on participants with phenotypes and environmental exposures derived from electronic
medical records. The aim is to quickly share the resulting data with the broad
scientific community for research use and to accelerate the discovery of genes
related to complex diseases.
Funding will be offered under the U01 Cooperative Agreement award mechanism.
Approximately 3-5 awards will be offered for a project period of up to
4 years. In total costs, $17.3 million will be offered over the 4-year
period.
The Letter of Intent is due April 17, and the application is due May
17.
RFA-HG-07-005 appears in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts.
Please also see NOT-HG-07-013, announcing a pre-application technical
assistance meeting, in the NIH Guide. This
meeting will take place on Thursday, April 12, 11:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m. Eastern
Daylight Savings Time.
This award is offered by the National Human Genome Research Institute
within the National Institutes of Health.
Newly Published Research on Lymphoma Shows the Power of Consortia
Ten papers on Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (NHL) were published in the March 2007
issue of "Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention." These
papers stem from a symposium focusing on the role of the environment in NHL
risk that was held at the April 2006 annual meeting of the InterLymph Consortium. The
information presented at the symposium and published in the journal contributes
to our understanding of how behavioral and environmental factors such as infectious
agents, sunlight exposure, obesity, and chemical exposure affect the risk of
developing NHL.
InterLymph is an EGRP-sponsored consortium for epidemiologic research on lymphoma.
Members have completed or have ongoing case-control studies of lymphoma, and
participate in collaborative research by undertaking projects that pool data
across studies. Consortia like InterLymph facilitate large-scale collaborations
that are needed to address complex questions that cannot be answered through
the efforts of investigators at a single institution or from a single discipline.
The new research
papers are available online.
More information about the InterLymph Consortium and about consortia
in general can be found on the EGRP Web site.
Researchers find Genetic Risk Factors for Prostate Cancer
Multiple research findings showing a link between genetic variants on
chromosome 8 and prostate cancer risk have been published this week.
These findings build on an association found last year between a variant
at 8q24 (rs1447295) and prostate cancer risk. First, the Iceland-based
company, deCODE Genetics, demonstrated that individuals with specific
polymorphisms at rs14472975 and rs16901979 accounted for about 11% to
13% of prostate cancer cases in individuals of European decent and 31%
of cases in African Americans.
Second, the Cancer Genetics Markers of Susceptibility (CGEMS) initiative
validated the original deCODE Genetics finding (rs1447295) and found
a third locus at 8q24 (rs6983267) that strongly predicts prostate cancer
risk. Independently, this locus may be responsible for up to 20 percent
of prostate cancer cases among white men in the United States.
Third, the EGRP-sponsored Multiethnic Cohort Study identified seven
genetic variants that independently predict risk for prostate cancer
in the locus at 8q24. Most of the seven variants were of highest
frequency in African Americans. The high prevalence of these deleterious
variants may contribute to the higher rate of prostate cancer among African
Americans.
The Breast and Prostate Cancer Cohort Consortium (BPC3) also confirmed
deCODE Genetics findings that variation at rs1447295 is strongly associated
with prostate cancer risk. However, they found no association
between rs1447295 and breast cancer risk.
More about these studies can be found online:
Gudmundsson J, Sulem P, Manolescu A, Amundadottir LT, Gudbjartsson
D, Helgason A, Rafnar T, Bergthorsson JT, Agnarsson BA, Baker A, Sigurdsson
A, Benediktsdottir KR, Jakobsdottir M, Xu J, Blondal T, Kostic J, Sun
J, Ghosh S, Stacey SN, Mouy M, Saemundsdottir J, Backman VM, Kristjansson
K, Tres A, Partin AW, Albers-Akkers MT, Marcos JG, Walsh PC, Swinkels
DW, Navarrete S, Isaacs SD, Aben KK, Graif T, Cashy J, Ruiz-Echarri M,
Wiley KE, Suarez BK, Witjes JA, Frigge M, Ober C, Jonsson E, Einarsson
GV, Mayordomo JI, Kiemeney LA, Isaacs WB, Catalona WJ, Barkardottir RB,
Gulcher JR, Thorsteinsdottir U, Kong A, Stefansson K. Genome-wide
association study identifies a second prostate cancer susceptibility
variant at 8q24. Nat Genet. 2007 Apr 1; [Epub ahead of
print]
Haiman CA, Patterson N, Freedman ML, Myers SR, Pike MC, Waliszewska A,
Neubauer J, Tandon A, Schirmer C, McDonald GJ, Greenway SC, Stram DO,
Le Marchand L, Kolonel LN, Frasco M, Wong D, Pooler LC, Ardlie K, Oakley-Girvan
I, Whittemore AS, Cooney KA, John EM, Ingles SA, Altshuler D, Henderson
BE, Reich D. Multiple
regions within 8q24 independently affect risk for prostate cancer.
Nat Genet. 2007 Apr 1; [Epub ahead of print]
Yeager M, Orr N, Hayes RB, Jacobs KB, Kraft P, Wacholder S, Minichiello
MJ, Fearnhead P, Yu K, Chatterjee N, Wang Z, Welch R, Staats BJ, 2, Calle
EE, Feigelson HS, Thun MJ, Rodriguez C, Albanes D, Virtamo J, Weinstein
S, Schumacher FR, Giovannucci E, Willett WC, Cancel-Tassin G, Cussenot
O, Valeri A, Andriole GL, Gelmann EP, Tucker M, Gerhard DS, Fraumeni
JF, Hoover R, Hunter DJ, Chanock SJ, Thomas G. Genome-wide
association study of prostate cancer identifies a second locus at 8q24.
Nat Genet. 2007 Apr 1; [Epub ahead of print]
Schumacher FR, Feigelson HS, Cox DG, Haiman CA, Hunter DJ, Albanes D,
Buring J, Calle EE, Chanock SJ, Colditz GA, Diver WR, Dunning AM,
Freedman ML, Gaziano JM, Giovannucci E, Hankinson SE, Hayes RB, Henderson
BE, Hoover RN, Kaaks R, Key T, Kolonel LN, Kraft P, Le Marchand L, Ma
J, Pike MC, Riboli E, Stampfer MJ, Stram DO, Thomas G, Thun MJ, Travis
R, Virtamo J, Willett WC. A
common 8q24 variant in breast and prostate cancer from a large nested
case-control study. Cancer Res. 2007 Apr 1;67(7):2951-2956.
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