Genetic epidemiology of pancreatic cancer

Human Genome Research

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

Dr. Bailey-Wilson and Dr. Alison Klein are collaborating with researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the Mayo Clinic on genetic epidemiology analyses of human pancreatic cancer family data. Several studies have shown that family history of cancer and a family history of pancreatic cancer are risk factors for pancreatic cancer. The primary objective of this study is to determine if there is evidence for a major gene involved in susceptibility to pancreatic cancer. Data have been collected at JHU on families of individuals diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. There are two sets of data. The first consists of families recruited through consecutively diagnosed pancreatic cancer patients at the JHU Bayview Medical Center and the second consists of families enrolled in the National Familial Pancreas Tumor Registry located at Johns Hopkins Hospital. One paper presenting results of Dr. Klein's segregation analyses was published in the past. Further analyses have been carried out on these data to examine the adequacy of the fit of the segregation analysis models and to determine whether the results are unduly influenced by certain families, or whether the results are typical of most families in the datasets. Additionally, a manuscript has recently been submitted that quantifies the risk of developing pancreatic cancer among individuals with a strong family history of pancreatic cancer. Quantification of this risk provides a rational basis for cancer risk counseling and preventative screening. Analyses are currently being conducted to determine if there is aggregation of other cancers within these pancreatic cancer families. This study is being expanded to include linkage and association analyses in some of these families and in additional families collected at JHU.