A Rare Variant in ERF (rs144812092) Predisposes to Prostate and Bladder Cancers in an Extended Pedigree.

Pairs of related bladder cancer cases who belong to pedigrees with an excess of bladder cancer were sequenced to identify rare, shared variants as candidate predisposition variants. Candidate variants were tested for association with bladder cancer risk. A validated variant was assayed for segregation to other related cancer cases, and the predicted protein structure of this variant was analyzed. This study of affected bladder cancer relative pairs from high-risk pedigrees identified 152 bladder cancer predisposition candidate variants. One variant in ERF (ETS Repressing Factor) was significantly associated with bladder cancer risk in an independent population, was observed to segregate with bladder and prostate cancer in relatives, and showed evidence for altering the function of the associated protein. This finding of a rare variant in ERF that is strongly associated with bladder and prostate cancer risk in an extended pedigree both validates ERF as a cancer predisposition gene and shows the continuing value of analyzing affected members of high-risk pedigrees to identify and validate rare cancer predisposition variants.

Population genealogy resource shows evidence of familial clustering for Alzheimer disease.

OBJECTIVE: To show the potential of a resource consisting of a genealogy of the US record linked to National Veterans Health Administration (VHA) patient data for investigation of the genetic contribution to health-related phenotypes, we present an analysis of familial clustering of VHA patients diagnosed with Alzheimer disease (AD). METHODS: Patients with AD were identified by the International Classification of Diseases code. The Genealogical Index of Familiality method was used to compare the average relatedness of VHA patients with AD with expected relatedness. Relative risks for AD were estimated in first- to fifth- degree relatives of patients with AD using population rates for AD. RESULTS: Evidence for significant excess relatedness and significantly elevated risks for AD in relatives was observed; multiple pedigrees with a significant excess of VHA patients with AD were identified. CONCLUSIONS: This analysis of AD shows the nascent power of the US Veterans Genealogy Resource, in early stages, to provide evidence for familial clustering of multiple phenotypes, and shows the utility of this VHA genealogic resource for future genetic studies.

A breast cancer risk haplotype in the caspase-8 gene.

Recent large-scale studies have been successful in identifying common, low-penetrance variants associated with common cancers. One such variant in the caspase-8 (CASP8) gene, D302H (rs1045485), has been confirmed to be associated with breast cancer risk, although the functional effect of this polymorphism (if any) is not yet clear. In order to further map the CASP8 gene with respect to breast cancer susceptibility, we performed extensive haplotype analyses using single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) chosen to tag all common variations in the gene (tSNP). We used a staged study design based on 3,200 breast cancer and 3,324 control subjects from the United Kingdom, Utah, and Germany. Using a haplotype-mining algorithm in the UK cohort, we identified a four-SNP haplotype that was significantly associated with breast cancer and that was superior to any other single or multi-locus combination (P=8.0 x 10(-5)), with a per allele odds ratio and 95% confidence interval of 1.30 (1.12-1.49). The result remained significant after adjustment for the multiple testing inherent in mining techniques (false discovery rate, q=0.044). As expected, this haplotype includes the D302H locus. Multicenter analyses on a subset of the tSNPs yielded consistent results. This risk haplotype is likely to carry one or more underlying breast cancer susceptibility alleles, making it an excellent candidate for resequencing in homozygous individuals. An understanding of the mode of action of these alleles will aid risk assessment and may lead to the identification of novel treatment targets in breast cancer.