In this multi-ancestry genome-wide association study (GWAS) and fine mapping study of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) subsites, we analysed 19,073 cases and 38,857 controls and identified 29 independent novel loci. We provide robust evidence that a 3' UTR variant in (rs78378222, T>G) confers a 40% reduction in odds of developing overall HNSCC. We further examine the gene-environment relationship of and variants demonstrating their effects act through both smoking and alcohol use.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Both clear cell and papillary renal cell carcinomas (RCCs) overexpress kidney injury molecule-1 (KIM-1). We investigated whether plasma KIM-1 (pKIM-1) may be a useful risk stratification tool among patients with suspicious renal masses.
Methods: Prenephrectomy pKIM-1 was measured in two independent cohorts of patients with renal masses.
Tobacco smoke, alone or combined with alcohol, is the predominant cause of head and neck cancer (HNC). Here, we further explore how tobacco exposure contributes to cancer development by mutational signature analysis of 265 whole-genome sequenced HNC from eight countries. Six tobacco-associated mutational signatures were detected, including some not previously reported.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInternational differences in the incidence of many cancer types indicate the existence of carcinogen exposures that have not yet been identified by conventional epidemiology make a substantial contribution to cancer burden. In clear cell renal cell carcinoma, obesity, hypertension and tobacco smoking are risk factors, but they do not explain the geographical variation in its incidence. Underlying causes can be inferred by sequencing the genomes of cancers from populations with different incidence rates and detecting differences in patterns of somatic mutations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHere, in a multi-ancestry genome-wide association study meta-analysis of kidney cancer (29,020 cases and 835,670 controls), we identified 63 susceptibility regions (50 novel) containing 108 independent risk loci. In analyses stratified by subtype, 52 regions (78 loci) were associated with clear cell renal cell carcinoma (RCC) and 6 regions (7 loci) with papillary RCC. Notably, we report a variant common in African ancestry individuals ( rs7629500 ) in the 3' untranslated region of VHL, nearly tripling clear cell RCC risk (odds ratio 2.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLarge-scale biorepositories and databases are essential to generate equitable, effective, and sustainable advances in cancer prevention, early detection, cancer therapy, cancer care, and surveillance. The Mutographs project has created a large genomic dataset and biorepository of over 7,800 cancer cases from 30 countries across five continents with extensive demographic, lifestyle, environmental, and clinical information. Whole-genome sequencing is being finalized for over 4,000 cases, with the primary goal of understanding the causes of cancer at eight anatomic sites.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Body mass index (BMI) is known to influence the risk of various site-specific cancers, however, dissecting which subcomponents of this heterogenous risk factor are predominantly responsible for driving disease effects has proven difficult to establish. We have leveraged tissue-specific gene expression to separate the effects of distinct phenotypes underlying BMI on the risk of seven site-specific cancers.
Methods: SNP-exposure estimates were weighted in a multivariable Mendelian randomisation analysis by their evidence for colocalization with subcutaneous adipose- and brain-tissue-derived gene expression using a recently developed methodology.
We aimed to estimate the prevalence of depressive disorder in people living with HIV (PLWH) and evaluate its association with non-HIV-specific and HIV-specific factors in PLWH and in PLWH compared to the general population (GP). We used cross-sectional data from the QuAliV study, conducted within the ANRS-CO3 Aquitaine-AQUIVIH-NA cohort of PLWH in Nouvelle-Aquitaine (2018-2020), and a nationally-representative survey in the GP (EHIS-ESPS, 2014-2015), we included all participants aged ≥ 18 years old who had completed the Patient Health Questionnaire-8 (PHQ-8). Depressive disorder was defined as Patient Health Questionnaire-8 score greater or equal to 10.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEsophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) shows remarkable variation in incidence that is not fully explained by known lifestyle and environmental risk factors. It has been speculated that an unknown exogenous exposure(s) could be responsible. Here we combine the fields of mutational signature analysis with cancer epidemiology to study 552 ESCC genomes from eight countries with varying incidence rates.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGenome-wide association studies (GWASs) have identified thousands of cancer risk loci revealing many risk regions shared across multiple cancers. Characterizing the cross-cancer shared genetic basis can increase our understanding of global mechanisms of cancer development. In this study, we collected GWAS summary statistics based on up to 375,468 cancer cases and 530,521 controls for fourteen types of cancer, including breast (overall, estrogen receptor [ER]-positive, and ER-negative), colorectal, endometrial, esophageal, glioma, head/neck, lung, melanoma, ovarian, pancreatic, prostate, and renal cancer, to characterize the shared genetic basis of cancer risk.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSquamous cell carcinomas (SqCC) of the aerodigestive tract have similar etiological risk factors. Although genetic risk variants for individual cancers have been identified, an agnostic, genome-wide search for shared genetic susceptibility has not been performed. To identify novel and pleotropic SqCC risk variants, we performed a meta-analysis of GWAS data on lung SqCC (LuSqCC), oro/pharyngeal SqCC (OSqCC), laryngeal SqCC (LaSqCC) and esophageal SqCC (ESqCC) cancers, totaling 13,887 cases and 61,961 controls of European ancestry.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIt has been hypothesised that nonsyndromic cleft lip/palate (nsCL/P) and cancer may share aetiological risk factors. Population studies have found inconsistent evidence for increased incidence of cancer in nsCL/P cases, but several genes (e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe emergence of next-generation sequencing (NGS) has revolutionized the way of reaching a genome sequence, with the promise of potentially providing a comprehensive characterization of DNA variations. Nevertheless, detecting somatic mutations is still a difficult problem, in particular when trying to identify low abundance mutations, such as subclonal mutations, tumour-derived alterations in body fluids or somatic mutations from histological normal tissue. The main challenge is to precisely distinguish between sequencing artefacts and true mutations, particularly when the latter are so rare they reach similar abundance levels as artefacts.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) incidence is high in South America, where recent data on survival are sparse. We investigated the main predictors of HNSCC survival in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Colombia.
Methods: Sociodemographic and lifestyle information was obtained from standardized interviews, and clinicopathologic data were extracted from medical records and pathologic reports.
Background: Epidemiological studies consistently indicate that alcohol consumption is an independent risk factor for female breast cancer (BC). Although the aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2) polymorphism (rs671: Glu>Lys) has a strong effect on acetaldehyde metabolism, the association of rs671 with BC risk and its interaction with alcohol intake have not been fully elucidated. We conducted a pooled analysis of 14 case-control studies, with individual data on Asian ancestry women participating in the Breast Cancer Association Consortium.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Lyme disease is not uncommon and can sometimes progress to neurological complications. We report here an unusual case of bilateral diaphragmatic paralysis secondary to Lyme neuroborreliosis.
Case Report: A 79-year-old man was admitted to the intensive care unit for acute respiratory distress requiring intubation and the long-term use of nocturnal non-invasive ventilation.
Background: Several obesity-related factors have been associated with renal cell carcinoma (RCC), but it is unclear which individual factors directly influence risk. We addressed this question using genetic markers as proxies for putative risk factors and evaluated their relation to RCC risk in a mendelian randomization (MR) framework. This methodology limits bias due to confounding and is not affected by reverse causation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWith the aim to dissect the effect of adult height on head and neck cancer (HNC), we use the Mendelian randomization (MR) approach to test the association between genetic instruments for height and the risk of HNC. 599 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were identified as genetic instruments for height, accounting for 16% of the phenotypic variation. Genetic data concerning HNC cases and controls were obtained from a genome-wide association study.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHead and neck cancer (HNC) is a preventable malignancy that continues to cause substantial morbidity and mortality worldwide. Using data from the ARCAGE and Rome studies, we investigated the main predictors of survival after larynx, hypopharynx and oral cavity (OC) cancers. We used the Kaplan-Meier method to estimate overall survival, and Cox proportional models to examine the relationship between survival and sociodemographic and clinical characteristics.
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