scholarly journals Critical Analysis of Genome-Wide Association Studies: Triple Negative Breast Cancer Quae Exempli Causa

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (16) ◽  
pp. 5835
Author(s):  
Maria-Ancuta Jurj ◽  
Mihail Buse ◽  
Alina-Andreea Zimta ◽  
Angelo Paradiso ◽  
Schuyler S. Korban ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Risk Factors ◽  
Genetic Risk ◽  
Triple Negative ◽  
Cancer Susceptibility ◽  
Association Studies ◽  
Breast Cancer Susceptibility ◽  
Risk Scores ◽  
Genome Wide Association Studies ◽  
Genome Wide

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) are useful in assessing and analyzing either differences or variations in DNA sequences across the human genome to detect genetic risk factors of diseases prevalent within a target population under study. The ultimate goal of GWAS is to predict either disease risk or disease progression by identifying genetic risk factors. These risk factors will define the biological basis of disease susceptibility for the purposes of developing innovative, preventative, and therapeutic strategies. As single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are often used in GWAS, their relevance for triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) will be assessed in this review. Furthermore, as there are different levels and patterns of linkage disequilibrium (LD) present within different human subpopulations, a plausible strategy to evaluate known SNPs associated with incidence of breast cancer in ethnically different patient cohorts will be presented and discussed. Additionally, a description of GWAS for TNBC will be presented, involving various identified SNPs correlated with miRNA sites to determine their efficacies on either prognosis or progression of TNBC in patients. Although GWAS have identified multiple common breast cancer susceptibility variants that individually would result in minor risks, it is their combined effects that would likely result in major risks. Thus, one approach to quantify synergistic effects of such common variants is to utilize polygenic risk scores. Therefore, studies utilizing predictive risk scores (PRSs) based on known breast cancer susceptibility SNPs will be evaluated. Such PRSs are potentially useful in improving stratification for screening, particularly when combining family history, other risk factors, and risk prediction models. In conclusion, although interpretation of the results from GWAS remains a challenge, the use of SNPs associated with TNBC may elucidate and better contextualize these studies.

scholarly journals A Review of the Hereditary Component of Triple Negative Breast Cancer: High- and Moderate-Penetrance Breast Cancer Genes, Low-Penetrance Loci, and the Role of Nontraditional Genetic Elements

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Darrell L. Ellsworth ◽  
Clesson E. Turner ◽  
Rachel E. Ellsworth
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Triple Negative Breast Cancer ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Triple Negative ◽  
Association Studies ◽  
African Ancestry ◽  
Genome Wide Association Studies ◽  
Genetic Elements ◽  
Genome Wide ◽  
Increased Risk

Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), representing 10-15% of breast tumors diagnosed each year, is a clinically defined subtype of breast cancer associated with poor prognosis. The higher incidence of TNBC in certain populations such as young women and/or women of African ancestry and a unique pathological phenotype shared between TNBC and BRCA1-deficient tumors suggest that TNBC may be inherited through germline mutations. In this article, we describe genes and genetic elements, beyond BRCA1 and BRCA2, which have been associated with increased risk of TNBC. Multigene panel testing has identified high- and moderate-penetrance cancer predisposition genes associated with increased risk for TNBC. Development of large-scale genome-wide SNP assays coupled with genome-wide association studies (GWAS) has led to the discovery of low-penetrance TNBC-associated loci. Next-generation sequencing has identified variants in noncoding RNAs, viral integration sites, and genes in underexplored regions of the human genome that may contribute to the genetic underpinnings of TNBC. Advances in our understanding of the genetics of TNBC are driving improvements in risk assessment and patient management.

scholarly journals Common variants in breast cancer risk loci predispose to distinct tumor subtypes

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas U. Ahearn ◽  
Haoyu Zhang ◽  
Kyriaki Michailidou ◽  
Roger L. Milne ◽  
Manjeet K. Bolla ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Cancer Susceptibility ◽  
Association Studies ◽  
Growth Factor Receptor ◽  
Breast Cancer Susceptibility ◽  
Genome Wide Association Studies ◽  
Luminal A ◽  
Logistic Regression Models ◽  
Multiple Tumor ◽  
Tumor Subtypes

AbstractGenome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified over 170 common breast cancer susceptibility variants using standard GWAS methods. Many of these variants have differential associations by estrogen receptor (ER), but how these variants relate with other tumor features and intrinsic molecular subtypes is unclear. We used two-stage polytomous logistic regression models to evaluate variants in relation to multiple tumor features (ER, progesterone receptor (PR), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) and grade) adjusting for each other, and to intrinsic-like subtypes. Eighty-five of 178 variants were associated with at least one tumor feature (false discovery rate <5%), most commonly ER and grade followed by PR and HER2. Case-control comparisons among these 85 variants identified 65 variants strongly or exclusively associated (P<0.05) with luminal-like subtypes, 5 variants associated with all subtypes at differing strengths and 15 variants primarily associated with non-luminal subtypes, especially triple-negative (TN) disease. Five variants were associated with risk of Luminal A-like and TN subtypes in opposite directions. This report demonstrates a high level of complexity in the etiology heterogeneity of breast cancer susceptibility loci and can inform investigations of subtype-specific risk prediction.

scholarly journals Risks and Function of Breast Cancer Susceptibility Alleles

Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (16) ◽  
pp. 3953
Author(s):  
Saeideh Torabi Dalivandan ◽  
Jasmine Plummer ◽  
Simon A. Gayther
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Risk Factors ◽  
Disease Risk ◽  
Cancer Susceptibility ◽  
Association Studies ◽  
Treatment Strategies ◽  
Polygenic Risk Score ◽  
Genome Wide Association Studies ◽  
Degree Relative ◽  
Risk Variants

Family history remains one of the strongest risk factors for breast cancer. It is well established that women with a first-degree relative affected by breast cancer are twice as likely to develop the disease themselves. Twins studies indicate that this is most likely due to shared genetics rather than shared epidemiological/lifestyle risk factors. Linkage and targeted sequencing studies have shown that rare high- and moderate-penetrance germline variants in genes involved in the DNA damage response (DDR) including BRCA1, BRCA2, PALB2, ATM, and TP53 are responsible for a proportion of breast cancer cases. However, breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease, and there is now strong evidence that different risk alleles can predispose to different subtypes of breast cancer. Here, we review the associations between the different genes and subtype-specificity of breast cancer based on the most comprehensive genetic studies published. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have also been used to identify an additional hereditary component of breast cancer, and have identified hundreds of common, low-penetrance susceptibility alleles. The combination of these low penetrance risk variants, summed as a polygenic risk score (PRS), can identify individuals across the spectrum of disease risk. However, there remains a substantial bottleneck between the discovery of GWAS-risk variants and their contribution to tumorigenesis mainly because the majority of these variants map to the non-protein coding genome. A range of functional genomic approaches are needed to identify the causal risk variants and target susceptibility genes and establish their underlying role in disease biology. We discuss how the application of these multidisciplinary approaches to understand genetic risk for breast cancer can be used to identify individuals in the population that may benefit from clinical interventions including screening for early detection and prevention, and treatment strategies to reduce breast cancer-related mortalities.

scholarly journals Interaction between Genetic Risk Scores for reduced pulmonary function and smoking, asthma and endotoxin

Thorax ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. thoraxjnl-2020-215624
Author(s):  
Sinjini Sikdar ◽  
Annah B Wyss ◽  
Mi Kyeong Lee ◽  
Thanh T Hoang ◽  
Marie Richards ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Pulmonary Function ◽  
Genetic Risk ◽  
Association Studies ◽  
European Ancestry ◽  
Risk Scores ◽  
P Value ◽  
Genome Wide Association Studies ◽  
Inverse Association ◽  
Genetic Risk Scores ◽  
Genome Wide

RationaleGenome-wide association studies (GWASs) have identified numerous loci associated with lower pulmonary function. Pulmonary function is strongly related to smoking and has also been associated with asthma and dust endotoxin. At the individual SNP level, genome-wide analyses of pulmonary function have not identified appreciable evidence for gene by environment interactions. Genetic Risk Scores (GRSs) may enhance power to identify gene–environment interactions, but studies are few.MethodsWe analysed 2844 individuals of European ancestry with 1000 Genomes imputed GWAS data from a case–control study of adult asthma nested within a US agricultural cohort. Pulmonary function traits were FEV1, FVC and FEV1/FVC. Using data from a recent large meta-analysis of GWAS, we constructed a weighted GRS for each trait by combining the top (p value<5×10−9) genetic variants, after clumping based on distance (±250 kb) and linkage disequilibrium (r2=0.5). We used linear regression, adjusting for relevant covariates, to estimate associations of each trait with its GRS and to assess interactions.ResultsEach trait was highly significantly associated with its GRS (all three p values<8.9×10−8). The inverse association of the GRS with FEV1/FVC was stronger for current smokers (pinteraction=0.017) or former smokers (pinteraction=0.064) when compared with never smokers and among asthmatics compared with non-asthmatics (pinteraction=0.053). No significant interactions were observed between any GRS and house dust endotoxin.ConclusionsEvaluation of interactions using GRSs supports a greater impact of increased genetic susceptibility on reduced pulmonary function in the presence of smoking or asthma.

The Association Between Genetic Risk Factors and the Size of Intracranial Aneurysms at Time of Rupture

Neurosurgery ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 73 (4) ◽  
pp. 705-708 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Kleinloog ◽  
Femke N.G. van 't Hof ◽  
Franciscus J. Wolters ◽  
Ingeborg Rasing ◽  
Irene C. van der Schaaf ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Genetic Risk ◽  
Intracranial Aneurysms ◽  
Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage ◽  
Association Studies ◽  
Genetic Risk Score ◽  
Genetic Risk Factors ◽  
Genome Wide Association Studies ◽  
Aneurysm Size ◽  
Genome Wide

Abstract BACKGROUND: Genetic risk factors for intracranial aneurysms may influence the size of aneurysms. OBJECTIVE: To assess the association between genetic risk factors and the size of aneurysms at the time of rupture. METHODS: Genotypes of 7 independent single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the 6 genetic risk loci identified in genome-wide association studies of patients with intracranial aneurysms were obtained from 700 Dutch patients with an aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (1997-2007) previously genotyped in the genome-wide association studies; 255 additional Dutch patients with an aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (2007-2011) were genotyped for these SNPs. Aneurysms were measured on computerized tomography angiography or digital subtraction angiography. The mean aneurysm size (with standard error) was compared between patients with and without a genetic risk factor by the use of linear regression. The association between SNPs and size was assessed for single SNPs and for the combined effect of SNPs by using a weighted genetic risk score. RESULTS: Single SNPs showed no association with aneurysm size, nor did the genetic risk score. CONCLUSION: The 6 genetic risk loci have no major influence on the size of aneurysms at the time of rupture. Because these risk loci explain no more than 5% of the genetic risk, other genetic factors for intracranial aneurysms may influence aneurysm size and thereby proneness to rupture.

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