Abstract 1830: Cancer-associated variants at 8q24 are correlated with expression of adjacent long non-coding RNAs involved in cell cycle regulation.

Abstract

Abstract The mechanism by which cancer risk variants at 8q24.21 increase cancer risk is unclear for lack of protein-coding genes in the region, although such variants have been strongly associated with cancer development. By sequencing three colorectal cancer-associated variants and examining the expression levels of the lncRNAs at 8q24.21, we show that expression of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in the region is correlated with risk alleles of the cancer-associated variants. We further report that the lncRNAs regulate cell cycle by modulating expression of cell cycle-related genes such as CDKN1A and GADD45, suggesting the potential oncogenic functions of the lncRNAs. Our data provide new insight of disease-related variants in a gene desert. Citation Format: Taewan Kim, Carlo M. Croce. Cancer-associated variants at 8q24 are correlated with expression of adjacent long non-coding RNAs involved in cell cycle regulation. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 1830. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-1830