Approved Research

Investigating the genetics, lifestyles, environmental and clinical determinants and their interaction on development of hepatobiliary and pancreatic diseases/cancers.

Lay summary

Hepatobiliary and pancreatic diseases/cancers always have poor prognosis, which lead to heavy burden of public health. Although there are treatments such as surgery, chemotherapy and targeted therapy, the outcome of patients with cholangiocarcinoma, gallbladder cancer, pancreatic cancer, and severe pancreatitis is still unsatisfactory. Previous studies have pointed out that genetics, people's living habits, diet, sleep, smoking, drinking and so on could affect the prevalence of the population, as well as the development and prognosis of cancers. The purpose of this study is to explore genetics, lifestyles, environmental and clinical determinants and their interaction on development of digestive system diseases/cancers.

A nested case-control study was conducted using UK Biobank. We hope to use a lot of resources of the UK Biobank to solve the research problem-to determine the high-risk factors that affect the incidence and mortality of digestive system diseases/cancers and the changes of tumor behavior from the aspects of demography, life and behavior factors, past illness and drug use, and the time changes of these factors. In order to solve these problems, we will use the data from the UK Biobank for prospective observational study and genome-wide association studies and Mendel randomized analysis. We will adopt strict analysis methods, including Cox proportional hazard model, Mendel's stochastic law and so on. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and Phenotype Association Study (PheWAS) methods will be used to characterize the genetic variation/mutation statistically related to specific diseases, and ask which phenotypes a given genetic variation may be associated with.

Within three years after obtaining the data, we will devote ourselves to determining the high-risk factors affecting the incidence of digestive system diseases/cancers. Our research results not only help to find the high-risk population of digestive system diseases/cancers to achieve early prevention and early treatment, but also explore the high-risk factors affecting the oncological behavior of digestive system diseases/cancers from the genetic level, thus helping to reduce the incidence and mortality of digestive system diseases/cancers.