Identification of risk loci and a polygenic risk score for lung cancer: a large-scale prospective cohort study in Chinese populations

Nonmalignant Formalin-Fixed Paraffin-Embedded Tissues as a Source to Study Germline Variants and Cancer Predisposition: A Systematic Review

Background: Archived formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) specimens from nonmalignant tissues derived from cancer patients are a vast and potentially valuable resource for high-quality genotyping analyses and could have a role in establishing inherited cancer risk. Methods: We systematically searched PubMed, Ovid MEDLINE, and Scopus databases for all articles that compared genotyping performance of DNA from nonmalignant FFPE tissue with blood DNA derived from cancer patients irrespective of tumor type. Two independent researchers screened the retrieved studies, removed duplicates, excluded irrelevant studies, and extracted genotyping data from the eligible studies. These studies included, but were not limited to, genotyping technique, reported call rate, and concordance. Results: Thirteen studies were reviewed, in which DNA from nonmalignant FFPE tissues derived from cancer patients was successfully purified and genotyped. All these studies used different approaches for genotyping of DNA from nonmalignant FFPE tissues to amplify single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and to estimate of loss of heterozygosity. The concordance between genotypes from nonmalignant FFPE tissues and blood derived from cancer patients was observed to be high, whereas the call rate of the tested SNPs was not reported in all included studies. Conclusion: This review illustrates that DNA from nonmalignant FFPE tissues derived from cancer patients can serve as an alternative and reliable source for assessment of germline DNA for various purposes, including assessment of cancer predisposition.

Polygenic risk scores: from research tools to clinical instruments

Genome-wide association studies have shown unequivocally that common complex disorders have a polygenic genetic architecture and have enabled researchers to identify genetic variants associated with diseases. These variants can be combined into a polygenic risk score that captures part of an individual's susceptibility to diseases. Polygenic risk scores have been widely applied in research studies, confirming the association between the scores and disease status, but their clinical utility has yet to be established. Polygenic risk scores may be used to estimate an individual's lifetime genetic risk of disease, but the current discriminative ability is low in the general population. Clinical implementation of polygenic risk score (PRS) may be useful in cohorts where there is a higher prior probability of disease, for example, in early stages of diseases to assist in diagnosis or to inform treatment choices. Important considerations are the weaker evidence base in application to non-European ancestry and the challenges in translating an individual's PRS from a percentile of a normal distribution to a lifetime disease risk. In this review, we consider how PRS may be informative at different points in the disease trajectory giving examples of progress in the field and discussing obstacles that need to be addressed before clinical implementation.

An annual review of the remarkable advances in lung cancer clinical research in 2019

In recent years, lung cancer has become the most common cancer and the leading cause of deaths attributed to cancer. In China, lung cancer is the third leading cause of death after strokes and ischemic heart disease. This review aimed to provide an up-to-date summary of studies in regard to lung cancer in 2019 and to present the remarkable progress seen in lung cancer clinical research. A systematic search of PubMed and Web of Science for research published in 2019 was conducted using the search terms "lung cancer", "early stage", "advanced", "diagnosis", "treatment", or any combination of these terms. We selected 56 studies that we considered to be significant and have presented their major findings. In summary, survival among lung cancer patients was significantly improved compared with historical controls, turning lung cancer from an incurable disease into a chronic disease. In addition, treating lung cancer has become increasingly comprehensive, diversified, and individualized. Exploring the accurate biomarkers in immunotherapy and the mechanism of drug resistance in targeted therapy constitutes the greatest challenge at this stage.