Background: The Multiethnic Cohort Study (MEC) is a US prospective cohort of more than 215,000 participants, designed to investigate variation in risk factors and disease across diverse racial and ethnic groups. More than 74,000 participants contributed biospecimens for genetic studies. We describe this subcohort and demonstrate the types of analyses it enables.Methods: The MEC recruited adults aged 45 to 75 in California and Hawaii between 1993 and 1996. Cancer diagnoses were identified via state tumor registries. The MEC Genetics Database includes 73,139 participants with germline genotype data. We evaluated genetic similarity, its relationship with self-reported race/ethnicity, and baseline characteristics, including neighborhood socioeconomic status (nSES). Using breast, colorectal, and prostate cancer as examples, we conducted genome-wide association studies (GWAS), assessed nongenetic risk factors, and performed time-to-event analyses.Results: Participants included 10,962 African Americans, 24,234 Japanese Americans, 17,242 Latinos, 5,488 Native Hawaiians, 14,649 Whites, and 564 others. Principal component analysis showed substantial diversity. Multiethnic GWAS replicated known variants with effective control of population stratification. Polygenic risk score (PRS) effects varied across groups. Time-to-event models revealed associations between cancer incidence and nSES, population descriptors, and genetic similarity.Conclusions: The MEC Genetics Database enables multiancestry analyses of genetic and nongenetic cancer risk, supporting research on disparities, polygenic traits, and integrated risk prediction.Impact: Example analyses using these resources show the relationship between population descriptors, PRSs, and common cancer risk factors that require special consideration in genetic analyses.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE:The impact of germline pathogenic variants (PVs) in cancer predisposition genes on risk of prostate cancer (PCa) remains understudied in large populations of African ancestry. This study aims to characterize the range of genetic risk of PCa and aggressive disease phenotypes in men of African ancestry. METHODS:We analyzed 7176 PCa cases and 4873 controls from seven countries across North America and Africa to assess the association between PVs in 37 cancer predisposition genes and the risk of overall, aggressive, and metastatic PCa. Genes significantly associated with PCa risk were used to estimate lifetime absolute risk based on family history, polygenic risk score (PRS), and PV carrier status. KEY FINDINGS AND LIMITATIONS:PVs in ATM, BRCA2, CHEK2, HOXB13, and PALB2 were presented in 4% of aggressive/metastatic PCa cases and were significantly associated with an increased risk of aggressive PCa (odds ratio 2.18-5.96, p < 0.05). Lifetime absolute risk varied widely depending on PV carrier status, PRS, and family history, ranging from 3.0% to 74% for overall PCa, 0.6% to 41% for aggressive PCa, and 0.2% to 37% for metastatic PCa. PV carriers with a positive family history and a PRS in the 90th percentile had seven, 18, and 34 times the risks of overall, aggressive, and metastatic PCa, respectively, compared with average-risk individuals. Oversampling of aggressive cases may limit the generalizability of these findings to screening populations. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS:Integration of PV status, PRS, and family history enables more refined PCa risk estimates. The wide range of PCa risk observed among men of African ancestry in our study supports future prospective studies in the development of risk-stratified cancer screening programs to identify high-risk individuals who may benefit from screening at an earlier age.

Aims: The revised 2022 World Health Organization classification recognizes myeloid neoplasms with associated germline predisposition as a defined subcategory, underscoring the clinical significance of likely pathogenic (LPV) and pathogenic (PV) germline variation in these diseases. To better understand the role of LPV/PV in blood or marrow transplants (BMT), a curative therapy for myeloid neoplasms, we measure their frequency and association with mortality in two cohorts of donor-recipient pairs. Methods: LPV/PV frequencies in 665 cancer-related genes were measured using exomechip genotyping data in 1990 acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) patients and their unrelated donors, registered with the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research. Cox proportional hazard models were used to test variant association with recipient mortality one-year post-transplant. Results: Thirteen autosomal dominant (AD) LPV/PV in eight genes were found in 2.8% of patients and 2.2% of donors; those linked to autosomal recessive conditions appeared in 11.1% of patients and 11% of donors. The most common AD LPV/PV mutations in recipients were found in DDX41 (n = 18). For donors, the most frequent AD PVs occurred in CHEK2 (n = 21) and Fanconi Anemia (FA) genes (n = 7). DDX41 and CHEK2 variation did not correlate with patient survival, but patients with donors with an LPV/PVs in an FA gene had lower survival (HR = 2.38, 95%CI: 1.06-5.31, P = 0.035) than patients whose donors did not have an FA LPV/PV. Conclusion: We identified LPVs/PVs in cancer genes in donors and recipients and are the first to show an association of donor FA PVs with mortality after BMT.

Importance:Germline gene panel testing is recommended for men with advanced prostate cancer (PCa) or a family history of cancer. While evidence is limited for some genes currently included in panel testing, gene panels are also likely to be incomplete and missing genes that influence PCa risk and aggressive disease. Objective:To identify genes associated with aggressive PCa. Design, Setting, and Participants:A 2-stage exome sequencing case-only genetic association study was conducted including men of European ancestry from 18 international studies. Data analysis was performed from January 2021 to March 2023. Participants were 9185 men with aggressive PCa (including 6033 who died of PCa and 2397 with confirmed metastasis) and 8361 men with nonaggressive PCa. Exposure:Sequencing data were evaluated exome-wide and in a focused investigation of 29 DNA repair pathway and cancer susceptibility genes, many of which are included on gene panels. Main Outcomes and Measures:The primary study outcomes were aggressive (category T4 or both T3 and Gleason score ≥8 tumors, metastatic PCa, or PCa death) vs nonaggressive PCa (category T1 or T2 and Gleason score ≤6 tumors without known recurrence), and metastatic vs nonaggressive PCa. Results:A total of 17 546 men of European ancestry were included in the analyses; mean (SD) age at diagnosis was 65.1 (9.2) years in patients with aggressive PCa and 63.7 (8.0) years in those with nonaggressive disease. The strongest evidence of association with aggressive or metastatic PCa was noted for rare deleterious variants in known PCa risk genes BRCA2 and ATM (P ≤ 1.9 × 10-6), followed by NBN (P = 1.7 × 10-4). This study found nominal evidence (P < .05) of association with rare deleterious variants in MSH2, XRCC2, and MRE11A. Five other genes had evidence of greater risk (OR≥2) but carrier frequency differences between aggressive and nonaggressive PCa were not statistically significant: TP53, RAD51D, BARD1, GEN1, and SLX4. Deleterious variants in these 11 candidate genes were carried by 2.3% of patients with nonaggressive, 5.6% with aggressive, and 7.0% with metastatic PCa. Conclusions and Relevance:The findings of this study provide further support for DNA repair and cancer susceptibility genes to better inform disease management in men with PCa and for extending testing to men with nonaggressive disease, as men carrying deleterious alleles in these genes are likely to develop more advanced disease.

PDF file, 204K, Quantile-quantile plots of test comparison for genotype frequencies in cases vs controls.

Few studies have explored the genetic underpinnings of intra-abdominal visceral fat deposition, which varies substantially by sex and race/ethnicity. Among 1,787 participants in the Multiethnic Cohort (MEC)-Adiposity Phenotype Study (MEC-APS), we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of the percent visceral adiposity tissue (VAT) area out of the overall abdominal area, averaged across L1-L5 (%VAT), measured by abdominal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). A genome-wide significant signal was found on chromosome 2q14.3 in the sex-combined GWAS (lead variant rs79837492: Beta per effect allele = -4.76; P = 2.62 × 10 −8 ) and in the male-only GWAS (lead variant rs2968545: (Beta = -6.50; P = 1.09 × 10 −9 ), and one suggestive variant was found at 13q12.11 in the female-only GWAS (rs79926925: Beta = 6.95; P = 8.15 × 10 −8 ). The negatively associated variants were most common in European Americans (T allele of rs79837492; 5%) and African Americans (C allele of rs2968545; 5%) and not observed in Japanese Americans, whereas the positively associated variant was most common in Japanese Americans (C allele of rs79926925, 5%), which was all consistent with the racial/ethnic %VAT differences. In a validation step among UK Biobank participants (N = 23,699 of mainly British and Irish ancestry) with MRI-based VAT volume, both rs79837492 (Beta = -0.026, P = 0.019) and rs2968545 (Beta = -0.028, P = 0.010) were significantly associated in men only (n = 11,524). In the MEC-APS, the association between rs79926925 and plasma sex hormone binding globulin levels reached statistical significance in females, but not in males, with adjustment for total adiposity (Beta = -0.24; P = 0.028), on the log scale. Rs79837492 and rs2968545 are located in intron 5 of CNTNAP5 , and rs79926925, in an intergenic region between GJB6 and CRYL1 . These novel findings differing by sex and racial/ethnic group warrant replication in additional diverse studies with direct visceral fat measurements.

ABSTRACTThe role of minor histocompatibility antigens (mHAs) in mediating graft versus leukemia (GvL) and graft versus host disease (GvHD) following allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (alloHCT) is recognized but not well-characterized. By implementing improved methods for mHA prediction in two large patient cohorts, this study aimed to comprehensively explore the role of mHAs in alloHCT by analyzing whether (1) the number of predicted mHAs, or (2) individual mHAs are associated with clinical outcomes using multi-variate survival models corrected for multiple testing. Cox proportional hazard results showed that patients with a class I mHA count greater than the population median had an increased hazard of GvHD mortality (HR=1.39, 95%CI 1.01, 1.77, P=0.046). Competing risk analyses identified the class I mHAs DLRCKYISL (gene GSTP), WEHGPTSLL (CRISPLD2) and STSPTTNVL (SERPINF2) were associated with increased GVHD death (HR=2.84, 95%CI 1.52, 5.31, P=0.01), decreased leukemia-free survival (LFS) (HR=1.94,95%CI 1.27, 2.95, P=0.044), and increased disease-related mortality (DRM) (HR=2.32, 95%CI 1.5, 3.6, P=0.008), respectively. One class II mHA YQEIAAIPSAGRERQ (TACC2) was associated with increased risk of treatment-related mortality (TRM) (HR=3.05, 95%CI 1.75, 5.31, P=0.02). WEHGPTSLL and STSPTTNVL were present in conjunction within HLA haplotype B*40:01-C*03:04 and showed a positive dose-response relationship with increased all-cause mortality and DRM and decreased LFS, indicating these two mHAs contribute to risk of mortality in an additive manner. Our study reports the first large scale investigation of the associations of predicted class I and class II mHA peptides with clinical outcomes following alloHCT.Graphical Abstract

Little is known regarding the potential relationship between clonal hematopoiesis (CH) of indeterminate potential (CHIP), which is the expansion of hematopoietic stem cells with somatic mutations, and risk of prostate cancer, the fifth leading cause of cancer death of men worldwide. We evaluated the association of age-related CHIP with overall and aggressive prostate cancer risk in two large whole-exome sequencing studies of 75 047 European ancestry men, including 7663 prostate cancer cases, 2770 of which had aggressive disease, and 3266 men carrying CHIP variants. We found that CHIP, defined by over 50 CHIP genes individually and in aggregate, was not significantly associated with overall (aggregate HR = 0.93, 95% CI = 0.76-1.13, P = 0.46) or aggressive (aggregate OR = 1.14, 95% CI = 0.92-1.41, P = 0.22) prostate cancer risk. CHIP was weakly associated with genetic risk of overall prostate cancer, measured using a polygenic risk score (OR = 1.05 per unit increase, 95% CI = 1.01-1.10, P = 0.01). CHIP was not significantly associated with carrying pathogenic/likely pathogenic/deleterious variants in DNA repair genes, which have previously been found to be associated with aggressive prostate cancer. While findings from this study suggest that CHIP is likely not a risk factor for prostate cancer, it will be important to investigate other types of CH in association with prostate cancer risk.

T-cell responses to minor histocompatibility antigens (mHAs) mediate graft-versus-leukemia (GVL) effects and graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) in allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation. Therapies that boost T-cell responses improve allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant (alloHCT) efficacy but are limited by concurrent increases in the incidence and severity of GVHD. mHAs with expression restricted to hematopoietic tissue (GVL mHAs) are attractive targets for driving GVL without causing GVHD. Prior work to identify mHAs has focused on a small set of mHAs or population-level single-nucleotide polymorphism-association studies. We report the discovery of a large set of novel GVL mHAs based on predicted immunogenicity, tissue expression, and degree of sharing among donor-recipient pairs (DRPs) in the DISCOVeRY-BMT data set of 3231 alloHCT DRPs. The total number of predicted mHAs varied by HLA allele, and the total number and number of each class of mHA significantly differed by recipient genomic ancestry group. From the pool of predicted mHAs, we identified the smallest sets of GVL mHAs needed to cover 100% of DRPs with a given HLA allele. We used mass spectrometry to search for high-population frequency mHAs for 3 common HLA alleles. We validated 24 predicted novel GVL mHAs that are found cumulatively within 98.8%, 60.7%, and 78.9% of DRPs within DISCOVeRY-BMT that express HLA-A∗02:01, HLA-B∗35:01, and HLA-C∗07:02, respectively. We confirmed the immunogenicity of an example novel mHA via T-cell coculture with peptide-pulsed dendritic cells. This work demonstrates that the identification of shared mHAs is a feasible and promising technique for expanding mHA-targeting immunotherapeutics.

A rare African ancestry-specific germline deletion variant in HOXB13 (X285K, rs77179853) was recently reported in Martinican men with early-onset prostate cancer. Given the role of HOXB13 germline variation in prostate cancer, we investigated the association between HOXB13 X285K and prostate cancer risk in a large sample of 22 361 African ancestry men, including 11 688 prostate cancer cases. The risk allele was present only in men of West African ancestry, with an allele frequency in men that ranged from 0.40% in Ghana and 0.31% in Nigeria to 0% in Uganda and South Africa, with a range of frequencies in men with admixed African ancestry from North America and Europe (0-0.26%). HOXB13 X285K was associated with 2.4-fold increased odds of prostate cancer (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.5-3.9, p = 2 x 10(-4)), with greater risk observed for more aggressive and advanced disease (Gleason >= 8: odds ratio [OR] = 4.7, 95% CI = 2.3-9.5, p = 2 x 10(-5); stage T3/T4: OR = 4.5, 95% CI = 2.0-10.0, p = 2 x 10(-4); metastatic disease: OR = 5.1, 95% CI = 1.9-13.7, p = 0.001). We estimated that the allele arose in West Africa 1500-4600 yr ago. Further analysis is needed to understand how the HOXB13 X285K variant impacts the HOXB13 protein and function in the prostate. Understanding who carries this mutation may inform prostate cancer screening in men of West African ancestry. Patient summary: A rare African ancestry-specific germline deletion in HOXB13, found only in men of West African ancestry, was reported to be associated with an increased risk of overall and advanced prostate cancer. Understanding who carries this mutation may help inform screening for prostate cancer in men of West African ancestry. (C) 2022 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of European Association of Urology.

Rare pathogenic variants in DNA repair genes have been found to influence risk of aggressive prostate cancer. We conducted a large case-only exome sequencing study to further understand the role of rare coding variation in aggressive prostate cancer in a study of 9,185 aggressive (prostate cancer death, metastatic disease, T4, or both T3 and Gleason≥8) and 8,361 non-aggressive cases (T1/T2 and Gleason≤6) of European ancestry from 19 international studies. Stage 1 samples (N=5,545) had whole exome-sequencing, and stage 2 samples (N=12,001) had targeted exome sequencing for 1,459 genes selected based on stage 1 results and previous evidence. Logistic regression models were used to evaluate gene-based tests and the aggregate effect of multiple genes to investigate whether carrying pathogenic/likely pathogenic/deleterious (P/LP/D) variants (18,759 identified) was associated with risk of aggressive prostate cancer, prostate cancer death (N=6,033), or metastatic disease (N=1,730) compared to non-aggressive disease. Gene-based tests were meta-analyzed across stages 1 and 2. BRCA2, ATM, and NBN had the most statistically significant gene-based results: BRCA2 P/LP/D variant carriers had 4.3-fold higher odds of aggressive disease (95% CI=3.15-5.86, P=4x10-20), 4.7-fold higher odds of prostate cancer death (95% CI=3.41-6.59, P=2x10-20), and 5.7-fold higher odds of metastatic disease (95% CI=3.71-8.76, P=2x10-15); ATM P/LP/D variant carriers had 2.2-fold higher odds of aggressive disease (95% CI=1.58-2.99, P=2x10-6), 2.2-fold higher odds of prostate cancer death (95% CI=1.52-3.05, P=2x10-5), and 3.0-fold higher odds of metastatic disease (95% CI=1.93-4.61, P=9x10-7); and NBN P/LP/D variant carriers had 5.9-fold higher odds of metastatic disease (95% CI=2.56-13.84, P=3x10-5). Among potentially novel genes with strong but not exome-wide significant statistical evidence were MMP19, involved in reproduction and metastasis, with carriers having 2.8-fold higher odds of prostate cancer death (95% CI=1.53-5.05, P=8x10-4); PKD2L2, involved in fertility, with carriers having 3.5-fold higher odds of prostate cancer death (95% CI=1.76-7.04, P=5x10-4); and SMPD1, involved in converting sphingomyelin to ceramide, with carriers having 5.3-fold higher odds of metastatic disease (95% CI=1.85-14.98, P=0.002). At least one P/LP/D variant within a subset of 24 previously curated candidate prostate cancer DNA repair genes was carried by 12.8% of aggressive cases (OR=1.48, 95% CI=1.34-1.64, P=3x10-14), 12.6% of cases who died due to prostate cancer (OR=1.47, 95% CI=1.31-1.65, P=3x10-11), and 15.1% of metastatic cases (OR=2.16, 95% CI=1.57-2.16, P=5x10-14) compared to 9.4% of non-aggressive cases. These findings support the importance of rare genetic variation in aggressive prostate cancer risk and may have important implications for prostate cancer risk stratification and screening. Citation Format: Burcu F. Darst, Ed Saunders, Tokhir Dadaev, Xin Sheng, Peggy Wan, Loreall Pooler, Lucy Y. Xia, Stephen Chanock, Sonja I. Berndt, Susan M. Gapstur, Victoria Stevens, Demetrius Albanes, Stephanie J. Weinstein, Vincent Gnanapragasam, Graham G. Giles, Tu Nguyen-Dumont, Roger L. Milne, Mark M. Pomerantz, Julie A. Schmidt, Ruth C. Travis, Timothy J. Key, Konrad H. Stopsack, Lorelei A. Mucci, William J. Catalona, Beth Marosy, Kurt N. Hetrick, Kimberly F. Doheny, Robert J. MacInnis, Melissa C. Southey, Rosalind A. Eeles, Fredrik Wiklund, Zsofia Kote-Jarai, David V. Conti, Christopher A. Haiman. Multi-stage exome sequencing study of 17,546 aggressive and non-aggressive prostate cancer cases [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2022; 2022 Apr 8-13. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2022;82(12_Suppl):Abstract nr 688.

Introduction The number and location of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) mismatches associate with higher mortality after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (alloHCT). We sought to determine if prediction models using demographic and clinical data combined with genome-wide recipient-donor allele mismatching at non-HLA single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) contributed independent information about patients’ cause-specific and overall mortality after alloHCT. Methods To develop and test our outcome prediction models, we use DISCOVeRY-BMT, a 2-cohort study of patients with acute leukemia (ALL and AML) and myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and their 8/8 HLA-matched unrelated donors reported to the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research. Donor-recipient pairs (DRP) were genotyped using the OmniExpress Chip. At each SNP, mismatch was defined as: 1) Host-versus-Graft (HvG) - where the recipient is homozygous at a SNP locus with the donor sharing one allele, 2) Graft-versus-Host (GvH) - where the donor is homozygous at a SNP locus, while the recipient shares one allele with the donor, and 3) Bidirectional - both alleles differ between DRP. Independent typed SNPs selected one representative SNP for each linkage disequilibrium region. For each DRP and for each type of mismatch, values were summed (1 = mismatch and 0 = match), multiplied by the weight based on expression quantitative trait (eQTL) loci in blood using Blood eqtlGEN (√-log10 (p) for an eQTL and 1 for a non-eQTL SNP), then divided by the number of total weighted SNPs to provide an estimated proportion of SNPs mismatched for HvG, GvH, and Bidirectional, respectively. Low, Medium, and High mismatch levels were assigned using a hierarchical method to determine the optimal cut points for the exponentiated β coefficients from the multivariate Cox regression. Risk groups were developed using DRPs in Cohort 1 and performance was validated in Cohort 2. Results The mean proportion and standard deviation of weighted mismatch SNPs for HvG, GvH and Bidirectional is 9.11 ± 0.14, 9.09 ± 0.11, and 3.0 ± 0.09, respectively, and do not differ across cohorts. A continuous mismatch score was constructed based on β coefficients trained using Cohort 1 DRPs (βHvG = -0.39, βGvH = -1.42, and βBidirectional = 0.74) and the score is normally distributed. The optimal cut-off values (x104) for the mismatch score for low/medium- and medium/high-risk groups were: 3.87 and 4.24, respectively. The mismatch risk score in testing data (Cohort 2) showed that the overall survival rate in the first year after transplant was 15.2% lower in the high mismatch risk group compared to the low mismatch risk group (log rank p = 0.0019) and did not significantly differ by disease. When further stratified by disease, the survival probability differed significantly in AML patients with high risk compared to low risk mismatch (p = 0.01). Analyses of Cohort 2 show patients in the medium mismatch risk group (HR = 1.47, 95% CI 1.08, 2.02, p = 0.02) and high mismatch risk group (HR = 1.58, 95% CI 1.17, 2.12, p = 0.003) have a significantly increased risk of overall mortality within 1-year after alloHCT compared to the low mismatch risk group when adjusted for disease, disease status, recipient age, donor age, and graft source (Figure 1). Cohort 2 analyses of cause specific death (transplant- vs. disease-related mortality, TRM vs. DRM) showed that models including genetic mismatch, disease, disease status, recipient age, donor age, and graft source, predicted patients in the medium mismatch risk group (HR = 2.19, 95% CI 1.36, 3.51, p = 0.0012) and high mismatch risk group (HR = 2.38, 95% CI 1.51, 3.74, p = 0.0002) have significantly increased risk of DRM within 1-year after alloHCT, compared to the patients in the low mismatch risk group, with no significant associations for TRM (Figure 2). Conclusions These data suggest that a reliable and reproducible genome-wide mismatch score can be used to assess risk of mortality after alloHCT. Recipients with a low mismatch genetic score showed significantly better survival irrespective of disease status; thus, this score is prognostic for patients in complete remission or with measurable disease. Understanding the contribution of non-HLA genetic mismatches between the recipient and their HLA-matched donor could provide better guidance for the donor selection process and improve the current donor-recipient matching algorithm. Figure 1View largeDownload PPTFigure 1View largeDownload PPT Close modal

Key Points Pre-HCT mosaicism is related to increased relapse risk and lower survival after unrelated HCT, independent of cytogenetics at diagnosis. Pre-HCT mosaicism could be a useful clinical tool to guide risk stratification in acute lymphoblastic leukemia patients.

Several studies have found associations between higher pancreatic fat content and adverse health outcomes, such as diabetes and the metabolic syndrome, but investigations into the genetic contributions to pancreatic fat are limited. This genome-wide association study, comprised of 804 participants with MRI-assessed pancreatic fat measurements, was conducted in the ethnically diverse Multiethnic Cohort-Adiposity Phenotype Study (MEC-APS). Two genetic variants reaching genome-wide significance, rs73449607 on chromosome 13q21.2 (Beta = −0.67, P = 4.50×10-8) and rs7996760 on chromosome 6q14 (Beta = −0.90, P = 4.91×10-8) were associated with percent pancreatic fat on the log scale. Rs73449607 was most common in the African American population (13%) and rs79967607 was most common in the European American population (6%). Rs73449607 was also suggestively associated with lower risk of type 2 diabetes (OR = 0.95, 95% CI = 0.89-1.00, P = 0.047) in the Population Architecture Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) Study and the DIAbetes Genetics Replication and Meta-analysis (DIAGRAM), which included substantial numbers of non-European ancestry participants (53,102 cases and 193,679 controls). Rs73449607 is located in an intergenic region between GSX1 and PLUT , and rs79967607 is in intron 1 of EPM2A . PLUT , a linkRNA , regulates transcription of an adjacent gene, PDX1 , that controls beta-cell function in the mature pancreas, and EPM2A encodes the protein laforin, which plays a critical role in regulating glycogen production. If validated, these variants may suggest a genetic component for pancreatic fat and a common etiologic link between pancreatic fat and type 2 diabetes.

The role of common genetic variation in susceptibility to acute myeloid leukemia (AML), and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), a group of rare clonal hematologic disorders characterized by dysplastic hematopoiesis and high mortality, remains unclear. We performed AML and MDS genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in the DISCOVeRY-BMT cohorts (2,309 cases and 2,814 controls). Association analysis based on subsets (ASSET) was used to conduct a summary statistics SNP-based analysis of MDS and AML subtypes. For each AML and MDS case and control we used PrediXcan to estimate the component of gene expression determined by their genetic profile and correlate this imputed gene expression level with risk of developing disease in a transcriptome-wide association study (TWAS). ASSET identified an increased risk for de novo AML and MDS (OR = 1.38, 95% CI, 1.26-1.51, Pmeta = 2.8 × 10 –12 ) in patients carrying the T allele at s12203592 in Interferon Regulatory Factor 4 ( IRF4 ), a transcription factor which regulates myeloid and lymphoid hematopoietic differentiation. Our TWAS analyses showed increased IRF4 gene expression is associated with increased risk of de novo AML and MDS (OR = 3.90, 95% CI, 2.36-6.44, Pmeta = 1.0 × 10 –7 ). The identification of IRF4 by both GWAS and TWAS contributes valuable insight on the role of genetic variation in AML and MDS susceptibility.

Background: Identification of non-human leukocyte antigen (HLA) genetic risk factors could improve survival after allogeneic blood or marrow transplant (BMT) through matching at additional loci or individualizing risk prediction. We hypothesized that non-HLA loci contributed significantly to 1-year overall survival (OS), disease related mortality (DRM) or transplant related mortality (TRM) after unrelated donor (URD)BMT. Methods: We performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) in 2,887 acute myeloid leukemia (AML), myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) patients and their >= 8/8 HLA-matched URDs comprising two independent cohorts treated from 2000-2011. Findings: Using meta-analyses of both cohorts, genome-wide significant associations (p < 5 x 10(-8)) were identified in: recipient genomes with OS at MBNL1 (rs9990017, HR = 1.4, 95% CI 1.24-1.56, p = 3.3 x 10(-8)) and donor-recipient genotype mismatch with OS at LINCO2774 (rs10927108, HR = 1.34, 95% CI 1.21-1.48, p = 2.0 x 10(-8)); donor genomes with DRM at PCNX4 (rs79076914, HR = 1.7, 95% CI 1.41-2.05, p = 3.15 x 10(-8)), LINC01194 (rs79498125, HR = 1.86, 95% CI 1.49-2.31, p = 2.84 x 10(-8)), ARID5B (rs2167710, HR = 1.5, 95% CI 1.31-1.73, p = 6.9 x 10(-9)) and CT49 (rs32250, HR = 1.44, 95% Cl1.26-1.64, p = 2.6 x 10(-8)); recipient genomes at PILRB with TRM (rs141591562, HR = 2.33, 95% CI 1.74-3.12, p = 1.26 x 10(-8)) and donor-recipient genotype mismatch between EPGN and MTHF2DL with TRM (rs75868097, HR = 2.66, 95% CI 1.92-3.58, p = 4.6 x 10(-9)). Results publicly available at https://fuma.ctglab.nl/browse. Interpretation: These data provide the first evidence that non-HLA common genetic variation at novel loci with biochemical function significantly impacts 1-year URD-BMT survival. Our findings have implications for donor selection, could guide treatment strategies and provide individualized risk prediction after future validation and functional studies. (C) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.

To improve risk stratification and treatment decisions for patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) undergoing hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT). We used SNP-array data from the DISCOVeRY-BMT study to detect chromosomal aberrations in pre-HCT peripheral blood (collected 2–4 weeks before the administration of conditioning regimen) from 1974 AML patients who received HCT between 2000 and 2011. All aberrations detected in ≥ 10 patients were tested for their association with overall survival (OS), separately by remission status, using the Kaplan–Meier estimator. Cox regression models were used for multivariable analyses. Follow-up was through January 2019. We identified 701 unique chromosomal aberrations in 285 patients (7% of 1438 in complete remission (CR) and 36% of 536 not in CR). Copy-neutral loss-of-heterozygosity (CNLOH) in chr17p in CR patients (3-year OS = 20% vs. 50%, with and without chr17p CNLOH, p = 0.0002), and chr13q in patients not in CR (3-year OS = 4% vs. 26%, with and without chr13q CNLOH, p < 0.0001) are risk factors for poor survival. Models adjusted for clinical factors showed approximately three-fold excess risk of post-HCT mortality with chr17p CNLOH in CR patients (hazard ratio, HR = 3.39, 95% confidence interval CI 1.74–6.60, p = 0.0003), or chr13q CNLOH in patients not in CR (HR = 2.68, 95% CI 1.75–4.09, p < 0.0001). The observed mortality was mostly driven by post-HCT relapse (HR = 2.47, 95% CI 1.01–6.02, p = 0.047 for chr17p CNLOH in CR patients, and HR = 2.58, 95% CI 1.63–4.08, p < 0.0001 for chr13q CNLOH in patients not in CR. Pre-transplant CNLOH in chr13q or chr17p predicts risk of poor outcomes after unrelated donor HCT in AML patients. A large prospective study is warranted to validate the results and evaluate novel strategies to improve survival in those patients.

Blood lipids have been associated with the development of a range of cancers, including breast, lung and colorectal cancer. For endometrial cancer, observational studies have reported inconsistent associations between blood lipids and cancer risk. To reduce biases from unmeasured confounding, we performed a bidirectional, two-sample Mendelian randomization analysis to investigate the relationship between levels of three blood lipids (low-density lipoprotein [LDL] and high-density lipoprotein [HDL] cholesterol, and triglycerides) and endometrial cancer risk. Genetic variants associated with each of these blood lipid levels (P < 5 x 10(-8)) were identified as instrumental variables, and assessed using genome-wide association study data from the Endometrial Cancer Association Consortium (12 906 cases and 108 979 controls) and the Global Lipids Genetic Consortium (n = 188 578). Mendelian randomization analyses found genetically raised LDL cholesterol levels to be associated with lower risks of endometrial cancer of all histologies combined, and of endometrioid and non-endometrioid subtypes. Conversely, higher genetically predicted HDL cholesterol levels were associated with increased risk of non-endometrioid endometrial cancer. After accounting for the potential confounding role of obesity (as measured by genetic variants associated with body mass index), the association between genetically predicted increased LDL cholesterol levels and lower endometrial cancer risk remained significant, especially for non-endometrioid endometrial cancer. There was no evidence to support a role for triglycerides in endometrial cancer development. Our study supports a role for LDL and HDL cholesterol in the development of non-endometrioid endometrial cancer. Further studies are required to understand the mechanisms underlying these findings.