Glioma risk associated with extent of estimated European genetic ancestry in African Americans and Hispanics

Abstract

Glioma incidence is highest in non-Hispanic Whites, and to date, glioma genome-wide association studies (GWAS) to date have only included European ancestry (EA) populations. African Americans and Hispanics in the US have varying proportions of EA, African (AA) and Native American ancestries (NAA). It is unknown if identified GWAS loci or increased EA is associated with increased glioma risk. We assessed whether EA was associated with glioma in African Americans and Hispanics. Data were obtained for 832 cases and 675 controls from the Glioma International Case–Control Study and GliomaSE Case–Control Study previously estimated to have <80% EA, or self-identify as non-White. We estimated global and local ancestry using fastStructure and RFMix, respectively, using 1,000 genomes project reference populations. Within groups with ≥40% AA (AFR≥0.4), and ≥15% NAA (AMR≥0.15), genome-wide association between local EA and glioma was evaluated using logistic regression conditioned on global EA for all gliomas. We identified two regions (7q21.11, p = 6.36 × 10−4; 11p11.12, p = 7.0 × 10−4) associated with increased EA, and one associated with decreased EA (20p12.13, p = 0.0026) in AFR≥0.4. In addition, we identified a peak at rs1620291 (p = 4.36 × 10−6) in 7q21.3. Among AMR≥0.15, we found an association between increased EA in one region (12q24.21, p = 8.38 × 10−4), and decreased EA in two regions (8q24.21, p = 0. 0010; 20q13.33, p = 6.36 × 10−4). No other significant associations were identified. This analysis identified an association between glioma and two regions previously identified in EA populations (8q24.21, 20q13.33) and four novel regions (7q21.11, 11p11.12, 12q24.21 and 20p12.13). The identifications of novel association with EA suggest regions to target for future genetic association studies.