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Published on: October 14, 2015
Copy Number Variants Are Ovarian Cancer Risk Alleles at Known and Novel Risk Loci
Amber A DeVries1, Joe Dennis2, Jonathan P Tyrer3
1Center for Bioinformatics and Functional Genomics, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Copy number variants (CNVs) are associated with epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) risk, particularly at BRCA1, RAD51C, and BRCA2 genes. These findings suggest CNVs contribute to EOC heritability and may impact genetic testing and prevention strategies.
Area of Science:
- Genetics
- Oncology
- Molecular Biology
Background:
- Known genetic risk alleles explain about 40% of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) heritability.
- Copy number variants (CNVs) have not been extensively studied as EOC risk factors in large populations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the association between copy number variants (CNVs) and epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) risk in a large cohort.
- To identify specific genes and regions where CNVs may contribute to EOC susceptibility.
Main Methods:
- Utilized single nucleotide polymorphism array data from over 13,000 EOC cases and 17,000 controls of White European ancestry.
- Employed rare admixture maximum likelihood and by-probe ratio tests to identify CNVs associated with EOC risk.
- Conducted enrichment analyses of CNVs at known EOC risk loci and functional elements in ovarian cancer cells.
Main Results:
- Identified significant risk associations for CNVs at EOC risk genes BRCA1, RAD51C, and BRCA2.
- Found enrichment of risk-associated CNVs at known EOC loci and in regulatory elements within EOC-related cell types.
- Discovered four suggestive associations for rare CNVs with EOC risk.
Conclusions:
- CNVs at BRCA1, RAD51C, and BRCA2 are potentially pathogenic and contribute to EOC heritability.
- CNVs likely play a broader role in cancer susceptibility regions, impacting clinical genetic testing and prevention.
- This study highlights the importance of investigating CNVs in EOC risk assessment.
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