Genome-Wide Association Studies in Glioma

Abstract

Since the first reports in 2009, genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have been successful in identifying germline variants associated with glioma susceptibility. In this review, we describe a chronological history of glioma GWAS, culminating in the most recent study comprising 12,496 cases and 18,190 controls. We additionally summarize associations at the 27 glioma-risk SNPs that have been reported so far. Future efforts are likely to be principally focused on assessing association of germline-risk SNPs with particular molecular subgroups of glioma, as well as investigating the functional basis of the risk loci in tumor formation. These ongoing studies will be important to maximize the impact of research into glioma susceptibility, both in terms of insight into tumor etiology as well as opportunities for clinical translation. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 27(4); 418-28. ©2018 AACRSee all articles in this CEBP Focus section, "Genome-Wide Association Studies in Cancer."

Figure 1

Relative impact of SNP associations at glioma-risk loci for GBM and non-GBM tumors. Glioma risk estimates are from Melin and colleagues, 2017 (24). ORs were derived with respect to the risk allele.