Genetic factors, adherence to healthy lifestyle behavior, and risk of cancer: a pan-cancer study

Cancer development is thought to involve an interaction between genetic and lifestyle factors. As genome-wide association studies of cancer have become larger and more powerful, the results of them have become increasingly useful for prediction of cancer risk. Recent large-scale populational studies have suggested that polygenic risk score (PRS), computed by summing the effects of genetic variants, might be an efficient tool to assess cancer risk. Lifestyle-related factors such as physical inactivity and smoking are also known to play an important role in predisposition to cancer. Here we seek to assess cancer risk with both PRS and lifestyle factors. We collected reported loci associated with cancer risk at genome-wide significance level and deprived PRS for cancer risk. We will then investigate the potential cancer-associated lifestyle factors and generate risk models containing both PRS and lifestyle factors and evaluate them using data from participants of the UK Biobank with genetic and lifestyle information available. This study will provide important information for cancer risk assessment and help to guide cancer prevention strategies.