Exploring the Heritability of Cancer Resistance

• Activity Number: 487
• Type: Topic Contributed
• Date/Time: Wednesday, August 6, 2014 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Committee on Minorities in Statistics
• Author(s): Christina McIntosh*+ and Giovanni Parmigiani
• Companies: Harvard and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
• Keywords: heritability ; cancer

Abstract

Current studies investigate the genetics behind cancer incidence; yet, do not fully address these observations around cancer resistance. One may think that if cancer is developed by the mutation of genes, then cancer resistance is just a result of the low occurrence of those mutations. This may be true, but there may be an alternative explanation. Consider the fact that the genetics of cancer resistance may not simply be the reverse of cancer susceptibility, but it needs to be explored on its own. As a result, we propose methods that can be used to detect if there is a genetic component to cancer resistance. Individuals who survive to old age without developing cancer may represent a population subgroup who is genetically less susceptible to cancer. One may therefore use twin studies to examine if there exists a cancer resistance trait that co-occurs in twin pairs. We run simulations and use data from the Nordic Twin Study of Cancer (NorTwinCan) to apply the approaches that were developed to investigate the heritability of being resistant to cancer.