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Study Description

The Multiethnic Cohort (MEC) has established a large biorepository of blood and urine (N=67,000) and cryopreserved lymphocytes (N=15,000) linked to extensive, prospectively collected risk factors (e.g., diet, smoking, physical activity), biomarkers and clinical data for five racial/ethnic groups. This cohort study of over 215,000 men and women in Hawaii and California is unique in that it is population-based and includes large representations of older adults (45-75 yrs at baseline) for five US racial/ethnic groups (Japanese Americans, African Americans, European Americans, Latinos and Native Hawaiians) at varying risks of chronic diseases. Within the PAGE investigation, the MEC proposes to study: 1) diseases for which we have DNA available for large numbers of cases and controls (breast, prostate, and colorectal cancer, diabetes, and obesity); 2) important cancers that are less common (e.g., lung, pancreas, endometrial cancers, NHL) but for which we propose to pool our data with other funded groups; 3) common traits that are risk factors for these diseases (e.g., body mass index/weight, waist-to-hip ratio, height) and 4) relevant disease-associated biomarkers (e.g., fasting insulin and lipids, steroid hormones). The specific aims are: 1) To determine the population-based epidemiologic profile (allele frequency, main effect, heterogeneity by disease characteristics) of putative causal variants in the five racial/ethnic groups in the MEC; 2) for variants displaying effect heterogeneity across ethnic/racial groups, we will utilize differences in LD to identify a more complete spectrum of associated variants at these loci; 3) investigate gene x gene and gene x environment interactions to identify modifiers; 4) examine the associations of putative causal variants with already measured intermediate phenotypes (e.g., plasma insulin, lipids, steroid hormones); and 5) for variants that do not fall within known genes, start to investigate their relationships with gene expression and epigenetic patterns in small genomic studies.

This study is part of the Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) study phs000356.

Authorized Access
Publicly Available Data
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Study Inclusion/Exclusion Criteria

The MEC includes approximately 12,000 individuals of ethnicities other than the five targeted groups. These individuals were not included in the biorepository and are often excluded from analyses.

Molecular Data
TypeSourcePlatformNumber of Oligos/SNPsSNP Batch IdComment
Targeted Region Genotyping Applied Biosystems TaqMan OpenArrays N/A N/A
Targeted Region Genotyping Applied Biosystems TaqMan OpenArrays: MEC_HI_SNPASSAYONLY_04-14-10 8 1050508
Targeted Region Genotyping Applied Biosystems TaqMan OpenArrays: MEC_HI_SNPASSAYONLY_09-18-11 48 1056252
Targeted Region Genotyping Applied Biosystems TaqMan OpenArrays: MEC_HI_SNPASSAYONLY_12-7-09 74 1049710
Targeted Region Genotyping Applied Biosystems TaqMan OpenArrays: MEC_LA_SNPASSAYONLY_12-7-09 30 1049711
Targeted Region Genotyping Applied Biosystems TaqMan OpenArrays: MEC_SNPASSAYONLY_09-15-11 292 1056251
Targeted Region Genotyping Illumina iSelect Custom Panel 7100 N/A
Whole Genome Genotyping Illumina MEGA_Consortium_15063755_B2 1701459 1062317
Whole Genome Sequencing Illumina HiSeq X N/A N/A
Study History

The Multiethnic Cohort consists of 215,251 adult men and women aged 45-75 years at recruitment living in Hawaii and in California (primarily Los Angeles County) with the following ethnic distribution: African-American (16.3%), Latino (22.0%), Japanese-American (26.4%), Native Hawaiian (6.5%), White (22.9%), and other ancestry (5.8%). The sampling frame was driver's license files for Hawaii and Los Angeles, supplemented with Health Care Financing Administration (Medicare) and voter's registration file. Cohort members completed a 26-page mailed questionnaire in 1993-1996 and have been sent periodic follow-up surveys.

Selected Publications
Diseases/Traits Related to Study (MeSH terms)
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Study Attribution
  • Principal Investigator
    • Christopher Haiman, ScD. University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
    • Loic Le Marchand, MD, PhD. University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI, USA.
  • Funding Source - Genotyping and Analysis
    • U01HG007397. National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
    • U01HG004802. National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
  • Funding Source - Enrollment/Follow-up/Sample Collection (University of Hawaii)
    • R37CA54281. National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
    • P01CA33619. National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
    • R01CA126895. National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
  • Funding Source
    • U01CA136792. National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
    • U01CA98758. National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
  • Funding Source - Enrollment/Follow-up/Sample Collection (University of Southern California)
    • R01CA63464. National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.