A genome-wide association study was conducted among Chinese women to identify risk variants for breast cancer. By analyzing 607,728 SNPs in 1505 cases and 1522 controls, we selected 29 promising SNPs for a fast-track replication in an independent set of 1554 cases and 1576 controls. Four replicated loci were further investigated in a third set of samples including 3472 cases and 900 controls. SNP rs2046210 at 6q25.1, located upstream of the estrogen receptor 1 gene (ESR1), exhibited strong and consistent association with breast cancer across all three stages. Adjusted odds ratio (95% CI) were 1.36 (1.24–1.49) and 1.59 (1.40–1.82), respectively, for genotypes A/G and A/A versus G/G (P for trend, 2.0×10−15) in the pooled analysis of samples from all three stages. A similar, although weaker, association was also found in an independent study including 1591 cases and 1466 controls of European ancestry (Ptrend, 0.01). These results provide strong evidence implicating 6q25.1 as a susceptibility locus for breast cancer.

We conducted a three-stage genetic study to identify susceptibility loci for type 2 diabetes (T2D) in East Asian populations. The first stage meta-analysis of eight T2D genome-wide association studies (6,952 cases and 11,865 controls) was followed by a second stage in silico replication analysis (5,843 cases and 4,574 controls) and a stage 3 de novo replication analysis (12,284 cases and 13,172 controls). The combined analysis identified eight new T2D loci reaching genome-wide significance, which were mapped in or near GLIS3, PEPD, FITM2-R3HDML-HNF4A, KCNK16, MAEA, GCC1-PAX4, PSMD6 and ZFAND3. GLIS3, involved in pancreatic beta cell development and insulin gene expression1,2, is known for its association with fasting glucose levels3,4. The evidence of T2D association for PEPD5 and HNF4A6,7 has been detected in previous studies. KCNK16 may regulate glucose-dependent insulin secretion in the pancreas. These findings derived from East Asians provide new perspectives on the etiology of T2D.

Multiple genetic loci associated with obesity or body mass index (BMI) have been identified through genome-wide association studies conducted predominantly in populations of European ancestry. We conducted a meta-analysis of associations between BMI and approximately 2.4 million SNPs in 27,715 East Asians, followed by in silico and de novo replication in 37,691 and 17,642 additional East Asians, respectively. We identified ten BMI-associated loci at the genome-wide significance level (P<5.0×10−8), including seven previously identified loci (FTO, SEC16B, MC4R, GIPR/QPCTL, ADCY3/RBJ, BDNF, and MAP2K5) and three novel loci in or near the CDKAL1,PCSK1, and GP2 genes. Three additional loci nearly reached the genome-wide significance threshold, including two previously identified loci in the GNPDA2 and TFAP2B genes and a new locus near PAX6, which all had P<5.0×10−7. Findings from this study may shed light on new pathways involved in obesity and demonstrate the value of conducting genetic studies in non-European populations.

dmGWAS package and documents are available at http://bioinfo.mc.vanderbilt.edu/dmGWAS.html.

Endometrial cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer of the female reproductive tract in developed countries. Through genome-wide association studies (GWAS), we have previously identified eight risk loci for endometrial cancer. Here, we present an expanded meta-analysis of 12,906 endometrial cancer cases and 108,979 controls (including new genotype data for 5624 cases) and identify nine novel genome-wide significant loci, including a locus on 12q24.12 previously identified by meta-GWAS of endometrial and colorectal cancer. At five loci, expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) analyses identify candidate causal genes; risk alleles at two of these loci associate with decreased expression of genes, which encode negative regulators of oncogenic signal transduction proteins (SH2B3 (12q24.12) and NF1 (17q11.2)). In summary, this study has doubled the number of known endometrial cancer risk loci and revealed candidate causal genes for future study.