White, Donna L.

Background and Aims: Despite the substantial impact of environmental factors, individuals with a family history of liver cancer have an increased risk for HCC. However, genetic factors have not been studied systematically by genome-wide approaches in large numbers of individuals from European descent populations (EDP). Approach and Results: We conducted a 2-stage genome-wide association study (GWAS) on HCC not affected by HBV infections. A total of 1872 HCC cases and 2907 controls were included in the discovery stage, and 1200 HCC cases and 1832 controls in the validation. We analyzed the discovery and validation samples separately and then conducted a meta-analysis. All analyses were conducted in the presence and absence of HCV. The liability-scale heritability was 24.4% for overall HCC. Five regions with significant ORs (95% CI) were identified for nonviral HCC: 3p22.1, MOBP, rs9842969, (0.51, [0.40–0.65]); 5p15.33, TERT, rs2242652, (0.70, (0.62–0.79]); 19q13.11, TM6SF2, rs58542926, (1.49, [1.29–1.72]); 19p13.11 MAU2, rs58489806, (1.53, (1.33–1.75]); and 22q13.31, PNPLA3, rs738409, (1.66, [1.51–1.83]). One region was identified for HCV-induced HCC: 6p21.31, human leukocyte antigen DQ beta 1, rs9275224, (0.79, [0.74–0.84]). A combination of homozygous variants of PNPLA3 and TERT showing a 6.5-fold higher risk for nonviral-related HCC compared to individuals lacking these genotypes. This observation suggests that gene-gene interactions may identify individuals at elevated risk for developing HCC. Conclusions: Our GWAS highlights novel genetic susceptibility of nonviral HCC among European descent populations from North America with substantial heritability. Selected genetic influences were observed for HCV-positive HCC. Our findings indicate the importance of genetic susceptibility to HCC development.

Abstract Background: Chronic inflammation is implicated in pancreatic cancer carcinogenesis. Advanced glycation end-products (AGEs), which are rich in cooked red meat and cigarette smoke, can perpetuate inflammation by binding to the receptor for advanced glycation end products (AGER, also known as RAGE). We hypothesized that genetic variation of the AGEs/AGER pathway affects pancreatic cancer risk by modulating chronic inflammation. Methods: We conducted a two-stage case-control study to examine the association between 96 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 21 genes (GLO1, MSR1, PINK1, KIF17, AGPAT1, AKR1B1, DDOST, CD36, SCARB1, AGER, APP, HMGB1, S100A8, S100B, S100P, S100A12, MMP9, ADAM10, PPARG, NOTCH4, and PDGF) of the AGEs/AGER pathway and risk of pancreatic cancer. The discovery study was conducted in 672 pancreatic cancer cases and 1361 controls ascertained from the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) Study matched on age, race/ethnicity and study arm. The validation study was conducted in a PANC4 pooled hospital-based case-control study of 1,034 women cases and 989 women controls. A pooled analysis of 1706 cases and 2350 controls was also performed. SNP data were obtained or imputed from the previously performed GWASs. Pancreatic cancer risk was calculated as odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (Cis) using logistic regression models adjusting for age, race/ethnicity, body mass index (BMI), type 2 diabetes, and smoking using an additive genetic model. The potential interaction between individual SNP and red meat intake and cigarette smoking was examined. A false discovery rate (FDR) adjusted q value < 0.20 was considered statistically significant in the pooled analyses. We also conducted logistic-Kernel machine (LKM) test to examine the association between sets of SNP and risk of pancreatic cancer in the pooled dataset. Results: We identified 11 SNPs with raw P values < 0.10 in the discovery stage in the WHI study. However, none of the SNPs was validated in the validation and pooled dataset. The LKM test showed that sets of SNPs in CD36 (P = 9.3E-10), GLO1(P =2.0E-7), and DDOST (P = 2.5E-4) were significantly associated with pancreatic cancer risk. We found an interaction effect between the GLO1 SNP rs6932648 and smoking status (never versus ever) in the WHI study (P for interaction = 0.01) and the pooled dataset (P for interaction = 0.049). In the pooled dataset, the variant T allele of rs6932648 (MAF = 0.12) was associated with increased risk of pancreatic cancer among ever smokers (additive OR = 1.26, 95% CI: 1.02-1.55), but not among never smokers (additive OR = 0.94, 95% CI: 0.78-1.14), compared with the C allele. Summary and Conclusion: We did not observe significant association between any of 96 single SNP and pancreatic cancer risk. However, we found combined set of SNPs in the GLO1, DDOST, and CD36 genes were associated with risk of pancreatic cancer. GLO SNP rs6932648 may modify the association between smoking and risk of pancreatic cancer. GLO1, DDOST, and CD36 are involved in detoxification or clearance of AGEs compounds. Further investigation of AGEs and receptors systems in pancreatic cancer is warranted. Citation Format: Guochong Jia, Kathryn Royse, Hongwei Tang, Donghui Li, Liang Chen, Lesley Tinker, Gloria Petersen, Alison Klein, Peter Richardson, Donna White, Haleh Sangi-Haghapeykar, Hashem B. El-Serag, Li Jiao. Genetic variations in the AGEs/AGER pathway and risk of pancreatic cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr LB-160. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-LB-160