Inaugural Meeting of THYGENE Consortium

In June, the first meeting of the Thyroid Cancer Genetics and Epidemiology (THYGENE) consortium was held in Rockville. Organized by Alice J. Sigurdson, Ph.D., Radiation Epidemiology Branch (REB), and Dr. Erich Sturgis from the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, the meeting’s primary goals were to facilitate pooling of existing genetic data and to identify genetic markers and epidemiologic risk factors for thyroid cancer.

The THYGENE consortium includes more than 16 study centers from around the world, and 29 researchers from eight countries attended the meeting. Participants discussed short- and long-term projects to uncover novel thyroid cancer susceptibility loci and to assess possible effect modification by environmental factors, including radiation exposure. Other co-organizers and participants from DCEG included Parveen Bhatti, Ph.D., Houda Boukheris, M.D., Ph.D., Alina V. Brenner, M.D., Ph.D., Maureen C. Hatch, Ph.D., and Elaine Ron, Ph.D., M.P.H. (all of REB); Ruth M. Pfeiffer, Ph.D., Biostatistics Branch (BB); and Jeffrey Yuenger, M.S., Core Genotyping Facility.

The next day, DCEG scientists Dr. Ron, Jay H. Lubin, Ph.D. (BB), and Lene Veiga, Ph.D. (REB), led the first meeting of the Pooled International Radiation and Thyroid Cancer Epidemiology Studies (PIRATES) group. The purpose of the meeting was to present and discuss the study protocol, determine data-sharing policies, and develop a timetable. The study will expand upon a 1995 analysis of radiation-associated thyroid cancers by Drs. Ron and Lubin, which pooled data from seven studies. The current project will be based on 15 studies conducted in Europe, Asia, and the United States. In total, PIRATES will include data on more than 160,000 exposed subjects and about 2,000 thyroid cancer cases. The study will focus on quantifying the thyroid cancer risk associated with adult radiation exposure, gender, attained age, and time since exposure. It will evaluate risk by histologic type, describe the shape of the dose-response curve, and compare the effects of acute and fractionated doses. Participants from DCEG were Dr. Bhatti, Dr. Brenner, Dr. Sigurdson, Kwang Pyo Kim, Ph.D., Ruth A. Kleinerman, M.P.H., Charles E. Land, Ph.D. (all of REB), and Margaret A. Tucker, M.D., Director of the Human Genetics Program and Chief of the Genetic Epidemiology Branch.

—Elaine Ron, Ph.D., M.P.H., Alice J. Sigurdson, Ph.D., and Lene Veiga, Ph.D.

First thyroid cancer meeting participants

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