Journal of Gastrointestinal & Digestive System
Open Access

Review Article

Five Gastric Cancer-Susceptibility Loci Identified by Genome-Wide Association Studies

Hiroe Ono¹ and Norihisa Saeki^2*

¹Pharmacovigilance Department, Data Science Center, Clinical Information Division, EPS Corporation, Koraku 2-3-19, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 112-0004, Japan

²Division of Genetics, National Cancer Center Research Institute, Tsukiji 5-1-1, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0045, Japan

*Corresponding Author:

Norihisa Saeki
Division of Genetics
National Cancer Center Research Institute
Tsukiji 5-1-1, Chuo-ku
Tokyo 104-0045, Japan
Tel: +81-3-3542-2511 ext3145
Fax: +81-3-3248-1631
E-mail: nsaeki@ncc.go.jp

Received date: May 20, 2013; Accepted date: June 06, 2013; Published date: June 08, 2013

Citation: Ono H, Saeki N (2013) Five Gastric Cancer-Susceptibility Loci Identified by Genome-Wide Association Studies. J Gastroint Dig Syst S12:015. doi:10.4172/2161-069X.S12-015

Copyright: © 2013 Ono H, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Gastric cancer is one of the most common cancers worldwide, especially in Asia, and ranks fourth in cancer death worldwide. Recently, in order to identify genes related to gastric cancer susceptibility, three genome-wide association studies were conducted using Japanese or Chinese populations, which revealed 5 gastric cancer-susceptibility loci: chromosome 1q22, 3q13.31, 5p13.1, 8q24.3 and 10q23. Further statistical and biological studies unveiled the causal candidate genes for the association in each locus: Mucin 1 (MUC1), encoding a membrane protein, in 1q22; zinc finger and BTB domain containing 20 (ZBTB20), a transcription factor, in 3q13.31; protein kinase, AMP-activated, alpha 1 catalytic subunit (PRKAA1), a ser/thr protein kinase, and/or prostaglandin E receptor 4 (PTGER4), a prostaglandin E2 receptor, and other 3 genes, in 5p13; Prostate stem cell antigen (PSCA), a membrane protein, in 8q24; phospholipase C, epsilon 1 (PLCE1), a phospholipase, in 10q23. Among these genes, MUC1 and PSCA were biologically investigated to obtain some rational for their relation to gastric carcinogenesis; however, the function of the other genes in cancer development is yet to be uncovered. As the genes identified through the genome-wide association studies have a strong potential to open a new door in cancer research, further studies are anticipated to be performed to elucidate their function and molecular pathways for application of the products to the therapy and prevention of gastric cancer.

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