Grant Number:	5R01CA075385-05 Interpret this number
Primary Investigator:	Olshan, Andrew
Organization:	University Of N Carolina At Chapel Hill
Project Title:	Case Control Study of Risk Factors for Wilms Tumor
Fiscal Year:	2002

Wilms tumor is the most common kidney tumor of childhood and has served as an important model for understanding the genetics and molecular biology of cancer. Epidemiologic studies have suggested but not proven an environmental influence. We propose to conduct the first large, comprehensive case-control study of risk factors for Wilms tumor. The proposed study will incorporate improved methods for exposure measurement and clinical and biologic markers to evaluate potential gene-environment interaction. About 800 cases will be identified through the National Wilms Tumor Study Group (NWTSG), a national collaborative clinical trial that enrolls over 95 percent of all cases of Wilms tumor diagnosed in the United States. Parents of cases and of 800 controls identified by random digit telephone dialing, matched to cases on age and geographic area, will be interviewed by telephone. A major aim of the study is to evaluate the role of specific paternal occupations and related exposures reported in previous studies as risk factors for Wilms tumor. The most consistent associations have involved paternal employment as welders, mechanics, and machinists. Related exposures found in these and other occupations include metals and solvents. However, the interpretation of previous studies has been hampered by a number of methodologic concerns. The proposed study will overcome these limitations, including the incorporation of improved methods for occupational data collection and exposure assessment. The study will also evaluate maternal employment as hairdressers, electronics manufacturing workers, laboratory workers, and dental assistants and related exposure to dyes, electromagnetic fields, solvents, and metals. This evaluation of parental occupation should provide the evidence necessary to either confirm or refute previous findings. The proposed study uses a recently developed system of branched interviews and industrial hygienist review to obtain job- and exposure-specific data. Since most of the patients have data collected on clinical and biologic markers as part of the ongoing NWTS-5 therapeutic and biology study, we will analyze the exposures separately for subgroups of patients defined by loss of heterozygosity at 11p, 1p, 16q, age at diagnosis, precursor lesions, bilaterality, and presence of congenital anomalies. We will be able to define subgroups with potential de novo germline mutations, an etiologic pathway more likely to be influenced by paternal preconceptional occupational exposures. We will also evaluate other suspected but unproved risk factors for Wilms tumor, such as residential use of pesticides, pregnancy conditions and exposures, and neonatal and childhood conditions. A medical records validation will be performed for pregnancy and delivery factors. This study will provide important new advances in our understanding of Wilms tumor given the study size, quality of exposure assessment, and incorporation of clinical and biological markers of etiologic heterogeneity.





None