Genetic Epidemiology of Cancer
Previous and current research
Our laboratory is interested in understanding the importance
of genetic factors in determining a person's risk of cancer.
Our research to date has focused on families with clear indications
of inherited susceptibility largely through the observation
of clear dominant inheritance in some families. These families
have a number of relatives with cancer, usually at a young
age. We have been collaborating with a number of groups around
the world in efforts to map these genes with family studies.
Our current studies involve inherited susceptibility to cancer
of the breast, bowel, testis, prostate and skin (melanoma).
For breast and bowel cancer these studies have been successful
in that the high penetrance genes have been cloned (for breast
cancer, these genes are labelled BRCA1 and BRCA2). Our research
is now focusing on determining the impact of these genes at
a population level by examining particular subgroups of patients
and determining the proportion which have mutations in these
crucial genes. One of the major reasons for doing this is
to understand the extent to which other genes which perhaps
have lesser effects on carriers are still to be found. We
are also interviewing women having BRCA1 and/or BRCA2 mutation
testing asking about exposure to non-genetic factors in an
effort to identify factors which mediate the risk of cancer
in this cohort of mutation carriers. Finally we are involved
in more basic statistical research developing methods for
identifying genes for complex diseases using isolated populations
and novel designs for epidemiological studies with a view
to interactions between genetic susceptibility and exposure
to particular genes in the environment.
Future projects
There are three projects which will be the focus of our work
over the next few years.
These are:
- Follow-up studies of those found to have germline mutations
to identify other risk factors and develop screening strategies
- Case-control studies examining gene-environment interactions
especially for bowel cancer and
- developing statistical methods for mapping lower penetrance
genes and identifying gene-environment interactions.
