Work

Using family members to augment genetic case–control studies of a life‐threatening disease

Year: 2016

Type: article

Abstract: Survival bias is difficult to detect and adjust for in case-control genetic association studies but can invalidate findings when only surviving cases are studied and survival is associated with the genetic variants under study. Here, we propose a design where one genotypes genetically informative family members (such as offspring, parents, and spouses) of deceased cases and incorporates that surrogate genetic information into a retrospective maximum likelihood analysis. We show that inclusion of genotype data from first-degree relatives permits unbiased estimation of genotype association parameters. We derive closed-form maximum likelihood estimates for association parameters under the widely used log-additive and dominant association models. Our proposed design not only permits a valid analysis but also enhances statistical power by augmenting the sample with indirectly studied individuals. Gene variants associated with poor prognosis can also be identified under this design. We provide simulation results to assess performance of the methods. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Source: Statistics in Medicine

DOI: 10.1002/sim.6888

Authors: Lu Chen, Clarice R. Weinberg, Jinbo Chen

Institutions: University of Pennsylvania, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

Language: English

Topic: Genetic Associations and Epidemiology

Subfield: Genetics

Field: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Domain: Life Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: green

Funders: Susan G. Komen, National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences