Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified more than 200 common genetic variants independently associated with colorectal cancer (CRC) risk, but the causal variants and target genes are mostly unknown. We sought to fine-map all known CRC risk loci using GWAS data from 100,204 cases and 154,587 controls of East Asian and European ancestry. Our stepwise conditional analyses revealed 238 independent association signals of CRC risk, each with a set of credible causal variants (CCVs), of which 28 signals had a single CCV. Our cis-eQTL/mQTL and colocalization analyses using colorectal tissue-specific transcriptome and methylome data separately from 1299 and 321 individuals, along with functional genomic investigation, uncovered 136 putative CRC susceptibility genes, including 56 genes not previously reported. Analyses of single-cell RNA-seq data from colorectal tissues revealed 17 putative CRC susceptibility genes with distinct expression patterns in specific cell types. Analyses of whole exome sequencing data provided additional support for several target genes identified in this study as CRC susceptibility genes. Enrichment analyses of the 136 genes uncover pathways not previously linked to CRC risk. Our study substantially expanded association signals for CRC and provided additional insight into the biological mechanisms underlying CRC development.
- MeSH
- Asijci * genetika MeSH
- běloši * genetika MeSH
- celogenomová asociační studie * MeSH
- genetická predispozice k nemoci * MeSH
- jednonukleotidový polymorfismus * MeSH
- kolorektální nádory * genetika MeSH
- lidé MeSH
- lokus kvantitativního znaku * MeSH
- mapování chromozomů MeSH
- sekvenování exomu MeSH
- studie případů a kontrol MeSH
- transkriptom MeSH
- východní Asiaté MeSH
- Check Tag
- lidé MeSH
- mužské pohlaví MeSH
- ženské pohlaví MeSH
- Publikační typ
- časopisecké články MeSH
- práce podpořená grantem MeSH
- Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural MeSH
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a leading cause of mortality worldwide. We conducted a genome-wide association study meta-analysis of 100,204 CRC cases and 154,587 controls of European and east Asian ancestry, identifying 205 independent risk associations, of which 50 were unreported. We performed integrative genomic, transcriptomic and methylomic analyses across large bowel mucosa and other tissues. Transcriptome- and methylome-wide association studies revealed an additional 53 risk associations. We identified 155 high-confidence effector genes functionally linked to CRC risk, many of which had no previously established role in CRC. These have multiple different functions and specifically indicate that variation in normal colorectal homeostasis, proliferation, cell adhesion, migration, immunity and microbial interactions determines CRC risk. Crosstissue analyses indicated that over a third of effector genes most probably act outside the colonic mucosa. Our findings provide insights into colorectal oncogenesis and highlight potential targets across tissues for new CRC treatment and chemoprevention strategies.
- MeSH
- celogenomová asociační studie MeSH
- Evropané * genetika MeSH
- genetická predispozice k nemoci MeSH
- jednonukleotidový polymorfismus genetika MeSH
- kolorektální nádory * genetika MeSH
- lidé MeSH
- multiomika MeSH
- východní Asiaté * genetika MeSH
- Check Tag
- lidé MeSH
- Publikační typ
- časopisecké články MeSH
- metaanalýza MeSH
- práce podpořená grantem MeSH
- Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural MeSH
Polygenic risk scores (PRS) have great potential to guide precision colorectal cancer (CRC) prevention by identifying those at higher risk to undertake targeted screening. However, current PRS using European ancestry data have sub-optimal performance in non-European ancestry populations, limiting their utility among these populations. Towards addressing this deficiency, we expand PRS development for CRC by incorporating Asian ancestry data (21,731 cases; 47,444 controls) into European ancestry training datasets (78,473 cases; 107,143 controls). The AUC estimates (95% CI) of PRS are 0.63(0.62-0.64), 0.59(0.57-0.61), 0.62(0.60-0.63), and 0.65(0.63-0.66) in independent datasets including 1681-3651 cases and 8696-115,105 controls of Asian, Black/African American, Latinx/Hispanic, and non-Hispanic White, respectively. They are significantly better than the European-centric PRS in all four major US racial and ethnic groups (p-values < 0.05). Further inclusion of non-European ancestry populations, especially Black/African American and Latinx/Hispanic, is needed to improve the risk prediction and enhance equity in applying PRS in clinical practice.
- MeSH
- celogenomová asociační studie MeSH
- etnicita * genetika MeSH
- genetická predispozice k nemoci MeSH
- jednonukleotidový polymorfismus MeSH
- kolorektální nádory * diagnóza genetika MeSH
- lidé MeSH
- multifaktoriální dědičnost MeSH
- rizikové faktory MeSH
- Check Tag
- lidé MeSH
- Publikační typ
- časopisecké články MeSH
- Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural MeSH
BACKGROUND: Risk variants identified so far for colorectal cancer explain only a small proportion of familial risk of this cancer, particularly in Asians. METHODS: We performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of colorectal cancer in East Asians, including 23,572 colorectal cancer cases and 48,700 controls. To identify novel risk loci, we selected 60 promising risk variants for replication using data from 58,131 colorectal cancer cases and 67,347 controls of European descent. To identify additional risk variants in known colorectal cancer loci, we performed conditional analyses in East Asians. RESULTS: An indel variant, rs67052019 at 1p13.3, was found to be associated with colorectal cancer risk at P = 3.9 × 10-8 in Asians (OR per allele deletion = 1.13, 95% confidence interval = 1.08-1.18). This association was replicated in European descendants using a variant (rs2938616) in complete linkage disequilibrium with rs67052019 (P = 7.7 × 10-3). Of the remaining 59 variants, 12 showed an association at P < 0.05 in the European-ancestry study, including rs11108175 and rs9634162 at P < 5 × 10-8 and two variants with an association near the genome-wide significance level (rs60911071, P = 5.8 × 10-8; rs62558833, P = 7.5 × 10-8) in the combined analyses of Asian- and European-ancestry data. In addition, using data from East Asians, we identified 13 new risk variants at 11 loci reported from previous GWAS. CONCLUSIONS: In this large GWAS, we identified three novel risk loci and two highly suggestive loci for colorectal cancer risk and provided evidence for potential roles of multiple genes and pathways in the etiology of colorectal cancer. In addition, we showed that additional risk variants exist in many colorectal cancer risk loci identified previously. IMPACT: Our study provides novel data to improve the understanding of the genetic basis for colorectal cancer risk.
- MeSH
- Asijci genetika MeSH
- celogenomová asociační studie MeSH
- dospělí MeSH
- genetická predispozice k nemoci * MeSH
- genetické lokusy * MeSH
- jednonukleotidový polymorfismus MeSH
- kolorektální nádory epidemiologie genetika MeSH
- lidé středního věku MeSH
- lidé MeSH
- lidské chromozomy, pár 1 genetika MeSH
- mutace INDEL MeSH
- rizikové faktory MeSH
- senioři MeSH
- studie případů a kontrol MeSH
- vazebná nerovnováha MeSH
- Check Tag
- dospělí MeSH
- lidé středního věku MeSH
- lidé MeSH
- mužské pohlaví MeSH
- senioři MeSH
- ženské pohlaví MeSH
- Publikační typ
- časopisecké články MeSH
- práce podpořená grantem MeSH
- Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural MeSH
- Research Support, N.I.H., Intramural MeSH
- Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S. MeSH
- Geografické názvy
- Čína MeSH
- Japonsko MeSH
- Korejská republika MeSH
