Principal Investigator: Ulrike Peters
At least 20%, perhaps as much as one-third of colon cancer is attributable to inherited factors. Identifying genetic variants is important to elucidate underlying mechanisms of colon cancer, the second leading cause of cancer death in the US. To accelerate the discovery of colon cancer-related variants, we are conducting a genome-wide association study testing hundreds of thousands genetic variants across the human genome. Given recent advancements in genotyping technology, such study has become feasible and presents the critical next step to further explore the impact of genetic variants in this cancer.To address this research question, we are genotyping common genetic variants across the entire genome in several thousand cases diagnosed with colon cancer and control participants from the Women’s Health Initiative and a multi-center population-based case-control study. To evaluate the impact of each genetic variant we will compare the frequency between colon cancer cases and controls. We expect that results will identify new candidate pathways and will improve our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of colon carcinogenesis; ultimately, the findings should provide directions for screening and prevention strategies.
