Etiology of Biliary Tract Cancer

Division Of Cancer Epidemiology And Genetics

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

This project includes: 1) the Shanghai Biliary Tract Cancer Study, 2) the Biliary Tract Cancer Pooling Project (BiTCaPP), 3) the Chile Gallbladder Cancer Study. These studies complement each other and will provide unique insight into the etiology of biliary tract cancer. The Shanghai Study includes more than 3,000 subjects, including over 600 biliary tract cancer patients, 900 gallstone patients, and 1,000 healthy controls randomly selected from the population. A structured questionnaire was used to elicit information on epidemiologic risk factors, including smoking, drinking, diet, medical history, and reproductive factors. The study had a strong biochemical and molecular component with an extensive collection of biological samples, including serum, DNA, gallstones, bile, and tissue samples. BiTCaPP is a pooling project involving 30 prospective studies, approximately 3 million participants, and over 5000 biliary tract cancer cases. This study allows the first well-powered, prospective evaluation of risk factors for cancer across the entire biliary tract. The Chile Gallbladder Cancer Study includes pilot studies (120 case-control subjects, 140 individuals with gallstones and complete sampling of the gallbladder, and 150 population-based individuals) and the Chile Biliary Longitudinal Study (Chile BiLS), a cohort of 4700 women with gallstones. We have also added a case-control component to Chile BiLS. Chile BiLS complements the Shanghai Study and BiTCaPP by allowing replication and validation of previous findings, as well as evaluation of unique exposures, such as aflatoxin. It also allows investigation of the contribution of risk factors to gallbladder cancer independent of gallstones, since all have gallstones, and enables detailed exploration of pre-cursor lesions.