A Phenome-wide Association Study of Polygenic Scores for Selected Childhood Cancer: Results from The UK Biobank

Abstract

The aim of this study was to scan phenotypes in adulthood associated with polygenic risk scores (PRS) for childhood cancers with well-articulated genetic architectures: acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), Ewing sarcoma, and neuroblastoma to examine genetic pleiotropy. Furthermore, we aimed to determine which single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) could drive associations. Per-SNP summary statistics were extracted for PRS calculation. Participants with white British ancestry were exclusively included for analyses. SNPs were queried from the UK biobank genotype imputation data. Records from the cancer registry, death registry, and inpatient diagnoses were abstracted for phenome-wide scans. Firth logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) alongside corresponding p-values, adjusting for age at recruitment and sex. A total of 244,332 unrelated white British participants were included. We observed a significant association between ALL-PRS and ALL (OR: 1.20e+24, 95% CI: 9.08e+14-1.60e+33). In addition, we observed a significant association between high-risk neuroblastoma PRS and nonrheumatic aortic valve disorders (OR: 43.9, 95% CI: 7.42-260). There were no significant phenotype associations with Ewing sarcoma and neuroblastoma PRS. Regarding individual SNPs, rs17607816 increased the risk of ALL (OR: 6.40, 95% CI: 3.26-12.57). For high-risk neuroblastoma, rs80059929 elevated the risk of atrioventricular block (OR: 3.04, 95% CI: 1.85-4.99). Our findings suggest that individuals with genetic susceptibility to ALL may face a lifelong risk for developing ALL, along with a genetic pleiotropic association between high-risk neuroblastoma and circulatory diseases.