Abstract
The interplay between genetic variants and environmental factors determines the phenotype, and therefore, their joint consideration is more likely to yield the true estimate of the cancer risk. This chapter attempts to introduce some of the fundamental challenges-related to the basic principles of the environment and gene–environment interactions in cancer susceptibility. The comprehensive understanding of the environment and interaction between genes and environment for development of each specific type of human cancer is needed for better assessing risk factors and prevention of the cancers.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Clayton, D., McKeigue, P.M., 2001. Epidemiological methods for studying genes and environmental factors in complex diseases. Lancet 358, 1356–1360.
Dempfle, A., Scherag, A., Hein, R., Beckmann, L., Chang-Claude, J., Schafer, H., 2008. Gene-environment interactions for complex traits: definitions, methodological requirements and challenges. Eur J Hum Genet 16, 1164–1172.
Hemminki, K., Lorenzo Bermejo, J., Forsti, A., 2006. The balance between heritable and environmental etiology of human disease. Nat Rev Genet 7, 958–965.
Hunter, D.J., 2005. Gene–environment interactions in human diseases. Nat Rev Genet 6, 287–298.
Kelada, S.N., Eaton, D.L., Wang, S.S., Rothman, N.R., Khoury, M.J., 2003. The role of genetic polymorphisms in environmental health. Environ Health Perspect 111, 1055–1064.
Khoury, M.J., Wacholder, S., 2009. Invited commentary: from genome-wide association studies to gene-environment-wide interaction studies – challenges and opportunities. Am J Epidemiol 169, 227–230; discussion 234–225.
Kraft, P., Hunter, D., 2005. Integrating epidemiology and genetic association: the challenge of gene–environment interaction. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 360, 1609–1616.
Kraft, P., Yen, Y.C., Stram, D.O., Morrison, J., Gauderman, W.J., 2007. Exploiting gene–environment interaction to detect genetic associations. Hum Hered 63, 111–119.
Le Marchand, L., 2005. The predominance of the environment over genes in cancer causation: implications for genetic epidemiology. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 14, 1037–1039.
Lynch, H.T., Shaw, T.G., Lynch, J.F., 2004. Inherited predisposition to cancer: a historical overview. Am J Med Genet C Semin Med Genet 129, 5–22.
Maher, B., 2008. Personal genomes: the case of the missing heritability. Nature 456, 18–21.
Murcray, C.E., Lewinger, J.P., Gauderman, W.J., 2009. Gene–environment interaction in genome-wide association studies. Am J Epidemiol 169, 219–226.
Offit, K., 2009. Breast cancer single-nucleotide polymorphisms: statistical significance and clinical utility. J Natl Cancer Inst 101, 973–975.
Ottman, R., 1996. Gene–environment interaction: definitions and study designs. Prev Med 25, 764–770.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2010 Springer Science+ Business Media, LLC
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Roy, D., Dorak, M.T. (2010). Introduction. In: Roy, D., Dorak, M. (eds) Environmental Factors, Genes, and the Development of Human Cancers. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-6752-7_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-6752-7_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-6751-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-6752-7
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)