Identification and molecular characterization of a new ovarian cancer susceptibility locus at 17q21.31

Permuth-Wey J, Lawrenson K, Shen HC, Velkova A, Tyrer JP, Chen Z, Lin HY, Ann Chen Y, Tsai YY, Qu X, Ramus SJ, Karevan R, Lee J, Lee N, Larson MC, Aben KK, Anton-Culver H, Antonenkova N, Antoniou AC, Armasu SM, stralian Cancer S, stralian Ovarian Cancer S, Bacot F, Baglietto L, Bandera EV, Barnholtz-Sloan J, Beckmann MW, Birrer MJ, Bloom G, Bogdanova N, Brinton LA, Brooks-Wilson A, Brown R, Butzow R, Cai Q, Campbell I, Chang-Claude J, Chanock S, Chenevix-Trench G, Cheng JQ, Cicek MS, Coetzee GA, Consortium of Investigators of Modifiers of B, Cook LS, Couch FJ, Cramer DW, Cunningham JM, Dansonka-Mieszkowska A, Despierre E, Doherty JA, Dork T, du Bois A, Durst M, Easton DF, Eccles D, Edwards R, Ekici AB, Fasching PA, Fenstermacher DA, Flanagan JM, Garcia-Closas M, Gentry-Maharaj A, Giles GG, Glasspool RM, Gonzalez-Bosquet J, Goodman MT, Gore M, Gorski B, Gronwald J, Hall P, Halle MK, Harter P, Heitz F, Hillemanns P, Hoatlin M, Hogdall CK, Hogdall E, Hosono S, Jakubowska A, Jensen A, Jim H, Kalli KR, Karlan BY, Kaye SB, Kelemen LE, Kiemeney LA, Kikkawa F, Konecny GE, Krakstad C, Kruger Kjaer S, Kupryjanczyk J, Lambrechts D, Lambrechts S, Lancaster JM, Le ND, Leminen A, Levine DA, Liang D, Kiong Lim B, Lin J, Lissowska J, Lu KH, Lubinski J, Lurie G, Massuger LF, Matsuo K, McGuire V, McLaughlin JR, Menon U, Modugno F, Moysich KB, Nakanishi T, Narod SA, Nedergaard L, Ness RB, Nevanlinna H, Nickels S, Noushmehr H, Odunsi K, Olson SH, Orlow I, Paul J, Pearce CL, Pejovic T, Pelttari LM, Pike MC, Poole EM, Raska P, Renner SP, Risch HA, Rodriguez-Rodriguez L, Anne Rossing M, Rudolph A, Runnebaum IB, Rzepecka IK, Salvesen HB, Schwaab I, Severi G, Shridhar V, Shu XO, Shvetsov YB, Sieh W, Song H, Southey MC, Spiewankiewicz B, Stram D, Sutphen R, Teo SH, Terry KL, Tessier DC, Thompson PJ, Tworoger SS, van Altena AM, Vergote I, Vierkant RA, Vincent D, Vitonis AF, Wang-Gohrke S, Palmieri Weber R, Wentzensen N, Whittemore AS, Wik E, Wilkens LR, Winterhoff B, Ling Woo Y, Wu AH, Xiang YB, Yang HP, Zheng W, Ziogas A, Zulkifli F, Phelan CM, Iversen E, Schildkraut JM, Berchuck A, Fridley BL, Goode EL, Pharoah PD, Monteiro AN, Sellers TA, Gayther SA (2013) Identification and molecular characterization of a new ovarian cancer susceptibility locus at 17q21.31. Nature communications 4:1627

Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) has a heritable component that remains to be fully characterized. Most identified common susceptibility variants lie in non-protein-coding sequences. We hypothesized that variants in the 3' untranslated region at putative microRNA (miRNA)-binding sites represent functional targets that influence EOC susceptibility. Here, we evaluate the association between 767 miRNA-related single-nucleotide polymorphisms (miRSNPs) and EOC risk in 18,174 EOC cases and 26,134 controls from 43 studies genotyped through the Collaborative Oncological Gene-environment Study. We identify several miRSNPs associated with invasive serous EOC risk (odds ratio=1.12, P=10(-8)) mapping to an inversion polymorphism at 17q21.31. Additional genotyping of non-miRSNPs at 17q21.31 reveals stronger signals outside the inversion (P=10(-10)). Variation at 17q21.31 is associated with neurological diseases, and our collaboration is the first to report an association with EOC susceptibility. An integrated molecular analysis in this region provides evidence for ARHGAP27 and PLEKHM1 as candidate EOC susceptibility genes.