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Meta-Analysis
. 2016 Oct;17(10):1363-1373.
doi: 10.1016/S1470-2045(16)30240-6. Epub 2016 Aug 12.

Genome-wide association studies in oesophageal adenocarcinoma and Barrett's oesophagus: a large-scale meta-analysis

Puya Gharahkhani  1 Rebecca C Fitzgerald  2 Thomas L Vaughan  3 Claire Palles  4 Ines Gockel  5 Ian Tomlinson  4 Matthew F Buas  3 Andrea May  6 Christian Gerges  7 Mario Anders  8 Jessica Becker  9 Nicole Kreuser  5 Tania Noder  10 Marino Venerito  11 Lothar Veits  12 Thomas Schmidt  13 Hendrik Manner  14 Claudia Schmidt  15 Timo Hess  9 Anne C Böhmer  9 Jakob R Izbicki  16 Arnulf H Hölscher  15 Hauke Lang  17 Dietmar Lorenz  18 Brigitte Schumacher  19 Andreas Hackelsberger  20 Rupert Mayershofer  21 Oliver Pech  22 Yogesh Vashist  23 Katja Ott  24 Michael Vieth  12 Josef Weismüller  25 Markus M Nöthen  9 Barrett's and Esophageal Adenocarcinoma Consortium (BEACON)Esophageal Adenocarcinoma GenEtics Consortium (EAGLE)Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium 2 (WTCCC2)Stephen Attwood  26 Hugh Barr  27 Laura Chegwidden  28 John de Caestecker  29 Rebecca Harrison  30 Sharon B Love  31 David MacDonald  32 Paul Moayyedi  33 Hans Prenen  34 R G Peter Watson  35 Prasad G Iyer  36 Lesley A Anderson  37 Leslie Bernstein  38 Wong-Ho Chow  39 Laura J Hardie  40 Jesper Lagergren  41 Geoffrey Liu  42 Harvey A Risch  43 Anna H Wu  44 Weimin Ye  45 Nigel C Bird  46 Nicholas J Shaheen  47 Marilie D Gammon  48 Douglas A Corley  49 Carlos Caldas  50 Susanne Moebus  51 Michael Knapp  52 Wilbert H M Peters  53 Horst Neuhaus  7 Thomas Rösch  10 Christian Ell  6 Stuart MacGregor  54 Paul Pharoah  55 David C Whiteman  56 Janusz Jankowski  57 Johannes Schumacher  9
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Genome-wide association studies in oesophageal adenocarcinoma and Barrett's oesophagus: a large-scale meta-analysis

Puya Gharahkhani et al. Lancet Oncol. 2016 Oct.

Abstract

Background: Oesophageal adenocarcinoma represents one of the fastest rising cancers in high-income countries. Barrett's oesophagus is the premalignant precursor of oesophageal adenocarcinoma. However, only a few patients with Barrett's oesophagus develop adenocarcinoma, which complicates clinical management in the absence of valid predictors. Within an international consortium investigating the genetics of Barrett's oesophagus and oesophageal adenocarcinoma, we aimed to identify novel genetic risk variants for the development of Barrett's oesophagus and oesophageal adenocarcinoma.

Methods: We did a meta-analysis of all genome-wide association studies of Barrett's oesophagus and oesophageal adenocarcinoma available in PubMed up to Feb 29, 2016; all patients were of European ancestry and disease was confirmed histopathologically. All participants were from four separate studies within Europe, North America, and Australia and were genotyped on high-density single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) arrays. Meta-analysis was done with a fixed-effects inverse variance-weighting approach and with a standard genome-wide significance threshold (p<5 × 10-8). We also did an association analysis after reweighting of loci with an approach that investigates annotation enrichment among genome-wide significant loci. Furthermore, the entire dataset was analysed with bioinformatics approaches-including functional annotation databases and gene-based and pathway-based methods-to identify pathophysiologically relevant cellular mechanisms.

Findings: Our sample comprised 6167 patients with Barrett's oesophagus and 4112 individuals with oesophageal adenocarcinoma, in addition to 17 159 representative controls from four genome-wide association studies in Europe, North America, and Australia. We identified eight new risk loci associated with either Barrett's oesophagus or oesophageal adenocarcinoma, within or near the genes CFTR (rs17451754; p=4·8 × 10-10), MSRA (rs17749155; p=5·2 × 10-10), LINC00208 and BLK (rs10108511; p=2·1 × 10-9), KHDRBS2 (rs62423175; p=3·0 × 10-9), TPPP and CEP72 (rs9918259; p=3·2 × 10-9), TMOD1 (rs7852462; p=1·5 × 10-8), SATB2 (rs139606545; p=2·0 × 10-8), and HTR3C and ABCC5 (rs9823696; p=1·6 × 10-8). The locus identified near HTR3C and ABCC5 (rs9823696) was associated specifically with oesophageal adenocarcinoma (p=1·6 × 10-8) and was independent of Barrett's oesophagus development (p=0·45). A ninth novel risk locus was identified within the gene LPA (rs12207195; posterior probability 0·925) after reweighting with significantly enriched annotations. The strongest disease pathways identified (p<10-6) belonged to muscle cell differentiation and to mesenchyme development and differentiation.

Interpretation: Our meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies doubled the number of known risk loci for Barrett's oesophagus and oesophageal adenocarcinoma and revealed new insights into causes of these diseases. Furthermore, the specific association between oesophageal adenocarcinoma and the locus near HTR3C and ABCC5 might constitute a novel genetic marker for prediction of the transition from Barrett's oesophagus to oesophageal adenocarcinoma. Fine-mapping and functional studies of new risk loci could lead to identification of key molecules in the development of Barrett's oesophagus and oesophageal adenocarcinoma, which might encourage development of advanced prevention and intervention strategies.

Funding: US National Cancer Institute, US National Institutes of Health, National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia, Swedish Cancer Society, Medical Research Council UK, Cambridge NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, Cambridge Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre, Else Kröner Fresenius Stiftung, Wellcome Trust, Cancer Research UK, AstraZeneca UK, University Hospitals of Leicester, University of Oxford, Australian Research Council.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Regional plots for loci meeting the threshold for genome-wide significance in both Barrett's oesophagus and oesophageal adenocarcinoma Regional associations for the most significantly associated single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs; marked as solid purple diamonds) in the combined Barrett's oesophagus and oesophageal adenocarcinoma meta-analysis (includes 10 279 patients with Barrett's oesophagus and oesophageal adenocarcinoma and 17 159 controls). Pairwise correlations (r2) between the top SNP and the other SNPs in a 400 kb flanking region are illustrated by different colours. Grey dots denote the SNPs that were not present in the reference panel that was used to calculate linkage disequilibrium between SNPs. Light orange spikes show estimated recombination rates. (A) rs17451754 on chromosome 7q31 within CFTR. (B) rs17749155 on chromosome 8p23 within MSRA. (C) rs10108511 on chromosome 8p23 within LINC00208 and BLK. (D) rs62423175 on chromosome 6q11 near KHDRBS2 and MTRNR2L9. (E) rs9918259 on chromosome 5p15 within TPPP and CEP72. (F) rs7852462 on chromosome 9q22 within TMOD1. (G) rs139606545 on chromosome 2q33 near SATB2. (H) rs12207195 on chromosome 6q26 within LPA. cM=centimorgan.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Regional plots for the oesophageal adenocarcinoma-specific locus rs9823696 near HTR3C and ABCC5 Regional associations for the most significantly associated single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP; marked as a solid purple diamond), rs9823696, in the oesophageal adenocarcinoma meta-analysis. Pairwise correlations (r2) between the top SNP and the other SNPs in a 400 kb flanking region are illustrated by different colours. Grey dots denote the SNPs that were not present in the reference panel that was used to calculate linkage disequilibrium between SNPs. Light orange spikes show estimated recombination rates. (A) Genome-wide significance in 4112 patients with oesophageal adenocarcinoma and 13 663 controls (p=1·64 × 10−8). (B) Not significant in 6167 patients with Barrett's oesophagus and 17 159 controls (p=0·45). cM=centimorgan.

Comment in

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