Dr. Bailey-Wilson and Dr. Alison Klein are collaborating with researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the Mayo Clinic on genetic epidemiology analyses of human pancreatic cancer family data. Several studies have shown that family history of cancer and a family history of pancreatic cancer are risk factors for pancreatic cancer. The primary objectives of this study is to determine if there is evidence for a major gene involved in susceptibility to pancreatic cancer and to quantify the risk of pancreatic cancer among individuals with a family history of the disease . Data have been collected at JHU on families of individuals diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. There are two sets of data. The first consists of families recruited through consecutively diagnosed pancreatic cancer patients at the JHU Bayview Medical Center and the second consists of families enrolled in the National Familial Pancreas Tumor Registry located at Johns Hopkins Hospital. One paper presenting results of Dr. Klein's segregation analyses was published in the past. In April 2004, a manuscript was published in Cancer Research which quantified the risk of developing pancreatic cancer among individuals with a strong family history of pancreatic cancer. Quantification of this risk provides a rational basis for cancer risk counseling and preventative screening. Analyses are currently being conducted to determine if there is aggregation of other cancers within these pancreatic cancer families. This study is being expanded to include linkage and association analyses in some of these families and in additional families collected at JHU.
| Klein, Alison P; Brune, Kieran A; Petersen, Gloria M et al. (2004) Prospective risk of pancreatic cancer in familial pancreatic cancer kindreds. Cancer Res 64:2634-8 |
| Klein, Alison P; Beaty, Terri H; Bailey-Wilson, Joan E et al. (2002) Evidence for a major gene influencing risk of pancreatic cancer. Genet Epidemiol 23:133-49 |
