Genetic Overlap Between Anomalies and Cancer in Kids in the Children's Oncology Group: The COG GOBACK Study

Study Summary

One of the strongest risk factors for cancer in children and adolescents is being born with a congenital anomaly. In fact, data from registry linkage studies imply that 10-15% of childhood cancer risk could be attributable to having a congenital anomaly. As an estimated 10 million children worldwide are born with a congenital anomaly per year, the public health implications of identifying why some of these children develop cancer are thus substantial. While these studies have been informative, registry data alone offers no possibility of molecular or sequencing studies to identify the specific genetic basis underlying the co-occurrence of anomalies and cancer susceptibility. Therefore, the investigators developed the first phase of the Genetic Overlap Between Anomalies and Cancer in Kids (GOBACK) Study to address these limitations. Using data from birth defects and cancer registries from four states, the investigators identified numerous novel specific anomaly-cancer associations. In the GOBACK Study the investigators identified an increase in cancer risk among children with any chromosomal abnormality and any non-chromosomal birth defect. Additionally, children with congenital anomalies developed a variety of cancers, therefore the investigators propose to evaluate a range of cancers among children with congenital anomalies. By pooling registry data across four states in the GOBACK Study, the investigators found that children with non-chromosomal birth defects have a significantly elevated risk of several childhood cancers. Notably several of these congenital anomalies are not characteristic of known cancer predisposition syndromes. Therefore, our preliminary studies lay the framework for this application. The objectives of the current study are to (1) interrogate the genomes of children with co-occurring non-chromosomal congenital anomalies and cancer enrolled in Project:EveryChild to identify genetic features associated with these combined phenotypes, and (2) ver

Conditions Studied

Interventions

• OTHER Laboratory Biomarker Analysis
• OTHER Questionnaire Administration
• OTHER Biospecimen collection
• OTHER Whole Genome Sequencing

Study Locations (1)