Whole Genome Scan for Pancreatic Cancer Risk in the Pancreatic Cancer Cohort Consortium (PanScan)

Within the framework of the NCI-sponsored Cohort Consortium, investigators from 12 prospective epidemiologic cohorts have formed the Pancreatic Cancer Cohort Consortium. This study, also known as "PanScan", is funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and involves conducting a genome-wide scan of common genetic variants to identify markers of susceptibility to pancreatic cancer. The study team includes the intramural and extramural research community associated with the NCI cohort consortium and Panc4 consortium of case control studies. PanScan employs a two-stage design, with a nested-case-control study of 2000 incident pancreatic cancer cases and 2000 controls for the initial scan (including 1600 cases and 1600 controls from cohort studies along with 400 cases and 400 controls from the Mayo Clinic Molecular Epidemiology of Pancreatic Cancer Case-Control Study). The subsequent validation study will genotype the top ~100 candidate SNPs in an additional 2100 cases and 2100 controls from the PanC4 Case-Control Consortium. The NCI Core Genotyping Facility conducted the genotyping.

• Study Weblink: Pancreatic Cancer Cohort Consortium
• Study Types: Cohort, Nested Case-Control
• Participants:
  

Within the cohorts, PanScan will be a nested case control study. Cases will include all incident primary pancreatic adenocarcinomas (ICD-O-3 code C250-C259 or C25.0-C25.3, C25.7-C25.9). Our case definition will exclude endocrine pancreatic tumors (C25.4, histology type, 8150, 8151, 8153, 8155, 8240) because the etiology of these cancers is thought to be different.

1. The Pancreatic Cancer Cohort Consortium

Each of the member studies of the Cohort Consortium participating in this GWAS is a prospective study of a defined population with blood or buccal cells collected prior to the occurrence of pancreatic cancer. Study characteristics vary but the common and standard prospective cohort design allows for rigorous pooled analysis.

2. Mayo Clinic Molecular Epidemiology of Pancreatic Cancer Case-Control Study

The Mayo Clinic study was initiated in 2000 and uses an "ultra-rapid" case ascertainment system with > 95% of all patients from Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin suspected with pancreatic cancer at the Mayo Clinic being approached. Among the patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, 72% provided proper consent and a blood sample for DNA. Clinic controls were frequency matched to cases on age, race, gender, and residence. Patients coming in for a general medical exam in Community, General or Area Internal Medicine were recruited for participation as controls. Inclusion criteria included being resident in Minnesota, Iowa, or Wisconsin, mentally competent, and at least 18 years old. Exclusion criteria included not being able to understand English or to complete an informed consent form, and having a prior history of cancer (except non-melanoma skin cancer), intraductal papillary mucinous tumors (IPMT), intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasia, islet cell tumor, or hereditary, chronic, or acute pancreatitis. Subjects who consented to be in the study provided venous blood samples which were aliquoted for serum, plasma, lymphocyte DNA, and viable frozen cells.

• Pancreatic Neoplasms

• Principal Investigators
  • Rachael Stolzenberg-Solomon. Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Department Health and Human Services, Bethesda, MD, USA
  • Charles Fuchs. Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
• Study Representatives
  • Eric Jacobs. Department of Epidemiology and Surveillance Research, American Cancer Society, Atlanta, GA, USA
  • Bas Bueno-de-Mesquita. National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Bilthoven, The Netherlands, and Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands
  • Kathy Helzlsouer. Prevention and Research Center, Mercy Medical Center, Baltimore, MD, USA
  • Gloria Petersen. Department of Health Sciences Research, College of Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA
  • Alan Arslan. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Department of Environmental Medicine, New York University School of Medicine and New York University Cancer Institute, New York, NY, USA
  • Myron Gross. Department of Laboratory Medicine/Pathology, School of Medicine, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
  • Wei Zheng,. Department of Medicine and Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
  • Andrea LaCroix. Division of Public Health Sciences, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, USA
• Statisticians
  • Peter Kraft. Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
  • Charles Kooperberg. Division of Public Health Sciences, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, USA
  • Kai Yu. Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Department Health and Human Services, Bethesda, MD, USA
• Genomics
  • Laufey Amundadottir. Laboratory of Translational Genomics, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Bethesda, MD, USA
  • Stephen Chanock. Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Department Health and Human Services, Bethesda, MD, USA
  • Kevin Jacobs. Core Genotyping Facility, Advanced Technology Program, SAIC-Frederick Inc., NCI-Frederick, Frederick, MD, USA
• Coordination
  • Patricia Hartge. Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Department Health and Human Services, Bethesda, MD, USA
  • Robert Hoover. Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Department Health and Human Services, Bethesda, MD, USA
• Funding Source
  • Funding sources are listed in the acknowledgement section of the following publication: Amundadottir L, Kraft P, Stolzenberg-Solomon RZ, Fuchs CS, et al. Genome-wide association study identifies variants in the ABO locus associated with susceptibility to pancreatic cancer. Nat Genet. 2009;Sep;41(9):986-90.