The etiology of neuroendocrine tumors remains poorly defined. Although neuroendocrine tumors are in some cases associated with inherited genetic syndromes, such syndromes are rare. The majority of neuroendocrine tumors are thought to be sporadic. We performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) to identify potential genetic risk factors for sporadic neuroendocrine tumors. Using germline DNA from blood specimens, we genotyped 909,622 SNPs using the Affymetrix 6.0 GeneChip, in a cohort comprising 832 neuroendocrine tumor cases from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Massachusetts General Hospital and 4542 controls from the Harvard School of Public Health. An additional 241 controls from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute were used for quality control. We assessed risk associations in the overall cohort, and in neuroendocrine tumor subgroups. We identified no potential risk associations in the cohort overall. In the small intestine neuroendocrine tumor subgroup, comprising 293 cases, we identified risk associations with three SNPs on chromosome 12, all in strong LD. The three SNPs are located upstream of ELK3, a transcription factor implicated in angiogenesis. We did not identify clear risk associations in the bronchial or pancreatic neuroendocrine subgroups. This large-scale study provides initial evidence that presumed sporadic small intestine neuroendocrine tumors may have a genetic etiology. Our results provide a basis for further exploring the role of genes implicated in this analysis, and for replication studies to confirm the observed associations. Additional studies to evaluate potential genetic risk factors for sporadic pancreatic and bronchial neuroendocrine tumors are warranted.

We performed a multistage genome-wide association study including 7,683 individuals with pancreatic cancer and 14,397 controls of European descent. Four new loci reached genome-wide significance: rs6971499 at 7q32.3 (LINC-PINT, per-allele odds ratio (OR) = 0.79, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.74-0.84, P = 3.0 × 10(-12)), rs7190458 at 16q23.1 (BCAR1/CTRB1/CTRB2, OR = 1.46, 95% CI 1.30-1.65, P = 1.1 × 10(-10)), rs9581943 at 13q12.2 (PDX1, OR = 1.15, 95% CI 1.10-1.20, P = 2.4 × 10(-9)) and rs16986825 at 22q12.1 (ZNRF3, OR = 1.18, 95% CI 1.12-1.25, P = 1.2 × 10(-8)). We identified an independent signal in exon 2 of TERT at the established region 5p15.33 (rs2736098, OR = 0.80, 95% CI 0.76-0.85, P = 9.8 × 10(-14)). We also identified a locus at 8q24.21 (rs1561927, P = 1.3 × 10(-7)) that approached genome-wide significance located 455 kb telomeric of PVT1. Our study identified multiple new susceptibility alleles for pancreatic cancer that are worthy of follow-up studies.

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified common pancreatic cancer susceptibility variants at 13 chromosomal loci in individuals of European descent. To identify new susceptibility variants, we performed imputation based on 1000 Genomes (1000G) Project data and association analysis using 5,107 case and 8,845 control subjects from 27 cohort and case-control studies that participated in the PanScan I-III GWAS. This analysis, in combination with a two-staged replication in an additional 6,076 case and 7,555 control subjects from the PANcreatic Disease ReseArch (PANDoRA) and Pancreatic Cancer Case-Control (PanC4) Consortia uncovered 3 new pancreatic cancer risk signals marked by single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) rs2816938 at chromosome 1q32.1 (per allele odds ratio (OR) = 1.20, P = 4.88x10 -15), rs10094872 at 8q24.21 (OR = 1.15, P = 3.22x10 -9) and rs35226131 at 5p15.33 (OR = 0.71, P = 1.70x10 -8). These SNPs represent independent risk variants at previously identified pancreatic cancer risk loci on chr1q32.1 ( NR5A2), chr8q24.21 ( MYC) and chr5p15.33 ( CLPTM1L- TERT) as per analyses conditioned on previously reported susceptibility variants. We assessed expression of candidate genes at the three risk loci in histologically normal ( n = 10) and tumor ( n = 8) derived pancreatic tissue samples and observed a marked reduction of NR5A2 expression (chr1q32.1) in the tumors (fold change -7.6, P = 5.7x10 -8). This finding was validated in a second set of paired ( n = 20) histologically normal and tumor derived pancreatic tissue samples (average fold change for three NR5A2 isoforms -31.3 to -95.7, P = 7.5x10 -4-2.0x10 -3). Our study has identified new susceptibility variants independently conferring pancreatic cancer risk that merit functional follow-up to identify target genes and explain the underlying biology.

OBJECTIVE: Tumour biomarkers are used as indicators for cancer screening and as predictors for therapeutic responses and prognoses in cancer patients. We aimed to identify genetic loci that influence concentrations of cancer antigen 19-9 (CA19-9), carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and α fetoprotein (AFP), and investigated the associations between the significant single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with risks of oesophageal squamous cell (OSCC), pancreatic and hepatocellular cancers. DESIGN: We carried out a genome wide association study on plasma CA19-9, CEA and AFP concentrations in 3451 healthy Han Chinese and validated the results in 10 326 individuals. Significant SNPs were further investigated in three case control studies (2031 OSCC cases and 2044 controls; 981 pancreatic cancer cases and 1991 controls; and 348 hepatocellular cancer cases and 359 controls). RESULTS: The analyses showed association peaks on three genetic loci for CA19-9 (FUT6-FUT3 at 19p13.3, FUT2-CA11 at 19q13.3 and B3GNT3 at 19p13.1; p=1.16×10(-13)-3.30×10(-290)); four for CEA (ABO at 9q34.2, FUT6 at 19p13.3, FUT2 at 19q13.3 and FAM3B at 21q22.3; p=3.33×10(-22)-5.81×10(-209)); and two for AFP (AFP at 4q11-q13 and HISPPD2A at 15q15.3; p=3.27×10(-18) and 1.28×10(-14)). These explained 17.14% of the variations in CA19-9, 8.95% in CEA and 0.57% in AFP concentrations. Significant ABO variants were also associated with risk of OSCC and pancreatic cancers, and AFP variants with risk of hepatocellular cancer (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: This study identified several loci associated with CA19-9, CEA and AFP concentrations. The ABO variants were associated with risk of OSCC and pancreatic cancers and AFP variants with risk of hepatocellular cancer.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Knowledge regarding genetic factors that influence pancreatic cancer risk is currently limited. To identify novel pancreatic cancer susceptibility loci, we conducted a two-stage genome-wide association study. METHODS: The Affymetrix Genome-Wide Human SNP Array 6.0 and DNA pooling were used in the screening stage. Twenty-six single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were selected for follow-up. These 26 lead SNPs and additionally selected tagSNPs for the regions around the lead SNPs were evaluated by individual genotyping of the pooling population and an independent validation population. RESULTS: Of the lead SNPs, the strongest association was found with rs4820599 located in the gamma-glutamyltransferase 1 (GGT1) gene. This SNP was significantly associated with pancreatic cancer risk in the validation population and the combined dataset (p(allele-based) = 0.019 and p(allele-based) = 0.003, respectively). Statistically significant associations were also observed with two GGT1 tagSNPs: rs2017869 and rs8135987. Lead SNP rs4820599 is in high linkage disequilibrium (LD; pairwise r(2): 0.69) and tagSNP rs2017869 is in strong LD (pairwise r(2): 0.96) with SNP rs5751901, which has been reported to be associated with increased GGT1 serum levels. GGT is expressed in the pancreas and plays a key role in glutathione metabolism. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that common variation in the GGT1 gene may affect the risk of pancreatic cancer. .

Pancreatic cancer has the lowest survival rate among human cancers, and there are no effective markers for its screening and early diagnosis. To identify genetic susceptibility markers for this cancer, we carried out a genome-wide association study on 981 individuals with pancreatic cancer (cases) and 1,991 cancer-free controls of Chinese descent using 666,141 autosomal SNPs. Promising associations were replicated in an additional 2,603 pancreatic cancer cases and 2,877 controls recruited from 25 hospitals in 16 provinces or cities in China. We identified five new susceptibility loci at chromosomes 21q21.3, 5p13.1, 21q22.3, 22q13.32 and 10q26.11 (P = 2.24 × 10(-13) to P = 4.18 × 10(-10)) in addition to 13q22.1 previously reported in populations of European ancestry. These results advance our understanding of the development of pancreatic cancer and highlight potential targets for the prevention or treatment of this cancer.

Pancreatic cancer shows very poor prognosis and is the fifth leading cause of cancer death in Japan. Previous studies indicated some genetic factors contributing to the development and progression of pancreatic cancer; however, there are limited reports for common genetic variants to be associated with this disease, especially in the Asian population. We have conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) using 991 invasive pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma cases and 5,209 controls, and identified three loci showing significant association (P-value<5x10(-7)) with susceptibility to pancreatic cancer. The SNPs that showed significant association carried estimated odds ratios of 1.29, 1.32, and 3.73 with 95% confidence intervals of 1.17-1.43, 1.19-1.47, and 2.24-6.21; P-value of 3.30x10(-7), 3.30x10(-7), and 4.41x10(-7); located on chromosomes 6p25.3, 12p11.21 and 7q36.2, respectively. These associated SNPs are located within linkage disequilibrium blocks containing genes that have been implicated some roles in the oncogenesis of pancreatic cancer.

We conducted a two-stage genome-wide association study of pancreatic cancer, a cancer with one of the lowest survival rates worldwide. We genotyped 558,542 SNPs in 1,896 individuals with pancreatic cancer and 1,939 controls drawn from 12 prospective cohorts plus one hospital-based case-control study. We conducted a combined analysis of these groups plus an additional 2,457 affected individuals and 2,654 controls from eight case-control studies, adjusting for study, sex, ancestry and five principal components. We identified an association between a locus on 9q34 and pancreatic cancer marked by the SNP rs505922 (combined P = 5.37 x 10(-8); multiplicative per-allele odds ratio 1.20; 95% confidence interval 1.12-1.28). This SNP maps to the first intron of the ABO blood group gene. Our results are consistent with earlier epidemiologic evidence suggesting that people with blood group O may have a lower risk of pancreatic cancer than those with groups A or B.