Cancer
The Centre has pioneered population-based family studies of cancer that are emerging as a standard for genetic epidemiological research. Key findings from these projects, the largest of their kind in the world, have included estimates of prevalence, life-time risk and proportion of disease attributable to major genes for breast and bowel cancer. These estimates put the role of genetic factors into population perspective. The major innovative element of these studies has been the prospective ascertainment of population-based samples of case and control families, including interviews with, and blood collections from, relatives irrespective of the cancer status of the case or the extent of family cancers. The analysis of genetic mutations and variants is a common thread to all studies.
The Australian Breast Cancer Family Registry (see the current newsletter), the Australasian Colorectal Cancer Family Registry (see the current newsletter), the Australian Melanoma Family Study, the Victorian Paediatric Cancer Family Study (see the current newsletter), and the Australian Prostate Cancer Family Study (in conjunction with TCCV) are large population-based case-control family studies funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), VicHealth, NSW Cancer Council and the National Institutes of Health (USA). Centre staff are also members of kConFab, a consortium of breast cancer researchers in Australia and New Zealand. The aims of these studies are to identify environmental and genetic risk factors for cancer. To date, we have information on approximately 100,000 individuals from thousands of families.
The Australian Jewish Breast Cancer Study (see the current newsletter), which is funded by the NIH as part of an international study, is designed to investigate the role of two breast cancer genes BRCA1 and BRCA2 in Jewish women who are more likely, than the general population, to carry a mutation. To date more than 400 women of Jewish descent who have either had breast cancer, or who have a relative with breast cancer, have participated. This study will allow researchers to estimate the risk of cancer for specific mutations within these two genes, rather than the average risk across many different types of mutations in these genes. This information is important to assess genetic and environmental modifiers of risk in carriers.
The Breast Cancer Family Registry 2005 Newsletter (pdf 175kb)
The Colon Cancer Family Registry 2005 Newsletter (pdf 182kb)
Victorian Paediatric Cancer Family Study 2005 Newsletter (pdf 820kb)
Australian Breast Cancer Family Study 2004 Newsletter (pdf 563kb)
Past Newsletters
Australasian Colorectal Cancer Family Study 2003 Newsletter (pdf 1.13mb)
Australian Jewish Breast Cancer Study 2002 Newsletter (pdf 216kb)