In a follow-up to our previously reported genome-wide association study of cutaneous basal cell carcinoma (BCC), we describe here several new susceptibility variants. SNP rs11170164, encoding a G138E substitution in the keratin 5 (KRT5) gene, affects risk of BCC (OR = 1.35, P = 2.1 × 10-9). A variant at 9p21 near CDKN2A and CDKN2B also confers susceptibility to BCC (rs2151280[C]; OR = 1.19, P = 6.9 × 10-9), as does rs157935[T] at 7q32 near the imprinted gene KLF14 (OR = 1.23, P = 5.7 × 10-10). The effect of rs157935[T] is dependent on the parental origin of the risk allele. None of these variants were found to be associated with melanoma or fair-pigmentation traits. A melanoma- and pigmentation-associated variant in the SLC45A2 gene, L374F, is associated with risk of both BCC and squamous cell carcinoma. Finally, we report conclusive evidence that rs401681[C] in the TERT-CLPTM1L locus confers susceptibility to BCC but protects against melanoma.

doi.org/10.1038/ng.412, hdl.handle.net/1765/24580
Nature Genetics
Erasmus MC: University Medical Center Rotterdam

Stacey, S., Sulem, P., Masson, G., Gudjonsson, S., Thorleifsson, G., Jakobsdottir, M., … Zwart, J.-A. (2009). New common variants affecting susceptibility to basal cell carcinoma. Nature Genetics, 41(8), 909–914. doi:10.1038/ng.412