Abstract 4176: Familial lung cancer exhibits multiple novel linked haplotypes within pedigrees
Authors: Musolf Anthony , Sun Haiming , Moiz Bilal A. , Pikielny Claudio W. , Andrade Mariza de , Mandal Diptasri , Gaba Colette , Yang Ping , Li Yafang , You Ming , Wilson Richard K. , Kupert Elena Y. , Anderson Marshall W. , Schwartz Ann G. , Pinney Susan M. , Amos Christopher I. , Govindan Ramaswamy , Bailey-Wilson Joan E. 
Published: August 2019

Lung cancer (LC) kills more people in the United States each year than any other cancer. While it is well known that a variety of environmental factors (particularly tobacco smoke) strongly increase the risk of LC, there are multiple associated genetic variants with small contributions to risk. High aggregation of LC within rare individual families suggest that there are high-risk genetic variants as well. However, these genetic risk factors for LC are under studied due to the rapid fatality of LC. We studied 28 highly aggregated extended high-risk familial lung cancer (HRFLC) families collected from eight different sites across the US. Whole exome sequencing was performed on 290 individuals from these families to identify potential risk variants for HRFLC using genetic linkage analysis. Quality control was performed on the sequence data, filtering on parameters such as read depth, genotype quality, missingness, and Mendelian inconsistencies. Identity-by-descent (IBD) values were also calculated to verify correct familial relationships. Quality control procedures left approximately 400,000 SNVs and indels for analysis.Parametric two-point linkage analysis was performed assuming an autosomal dominant mode of inheritance. Disease allele frequency was set to 1% with a penetrance of 80% for carriers and 1% phenocopy rate. While we did not identify any genome-wide significant variants across the 28 families, multiple suggestive variants were identified. The largest cluster of suggestive variants was located at 14q32 in the CATSPERB gene. Given the likely locus heterogeneity in LC (combined with the lack of power in some families), it is not surprising that none of the variants were significant across the families; looking at the individual family results proved more informative. Long haplotypes linked to LC risk were identified in multiple families. These long runs of positive linkages, which have little to no negative linkage evidence across them, are characteristic of true linkage signals in these types of analysis. Two of the most interesting linked regions were at 7p36.1 and 4q21.23-28.23. The 7p signal (observed in a single family) was genome-wide suggestive and located within the SSPO gene. SSPO has been implicated in breast and skin cancer (melanoma); it is a novel lung cancer signal. The 4q linkage (again observed in a single family) covers a large chunk of 4q and contains multiple potential candidate genes, however, the best candidate gene is PTPN13, a gene implicated in lung cancer but never in familial lung cancer. We are currently evaluating the individual family results of several other pedigrees and plan to perform additional analyses to confirm these linkages.

Citation Format: Anthony Musolf, Haiming Sun, Bilal A. Moiz, Claudio W. Pikielny, Mariza de Andrade, Diptasri Mandal, Colette Gaba, Ping Yang, Yafang Li, Ming You, Richard K. Wilson, Elena Y. Kupert, Marshall W. Anderson, Ann G. Schwartz, Susan M. Pinney, Christopher I. Amos, Ramaswamy Govindan, Joan E. Bailey-Wilson. Familial lung cancer exhibits multiple novel linked haplotypes within pedigrees [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 4176.