Xin Xu

Ph.D

First Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University

Fellow

PLCO (Learn more about this study)

PLCO-1020

Aug 9, 2022

A systematic evaluation of dietary and behavioral factors associated with renal cell carcinoma risk and survival

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) ranks seventh among the most frequently diagnosed cancer in males and ninth in females. There were an estimated 136.5 thousand new cases of RCC and 54.7 thousand deaths from RCC in Europe in 2018. Approximately half of early-stage RCC patients develop a disease recurrence after curative resection and approximately 30 % of RCC patients present with locally advanced or metastatic disease at the time of the initial diagnosis. Metastatic RCC is a treatment-resistant malignant tumor and has a -5-year overall survival (OS) of less than 10 %. Identifying risk and protective factors of RCC can improve its prevention and detection at an early stage, which would potentially improve its survival. Therefore, we plan to perform a systematic evaluation of dietary and behavioral factors associated with RCC incidence and survival.

The Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial is a randomized, controlled trial enrolling around 155,000 participants between November 1993 and July 2001, providing a comprehensive dataset for RCC incidence and mortality analysis. In addition, diet and behavioral information is also available in questionnaires, such as Baseline Questionnaire (BQ), Dietary Questionnaire (DQX) and Supplemental Questionnaire (SQX). Moreover, the bio-samples collected in PLCO also provide a broad base for serum biomarker and genetic data generation for systematic association study.

1) We plan to systematically evaluate the associations between environmental and behavioral factors (including dietary habits, nutrient supplements, NSAID use, body mass index, physical activity and sleep conditions) and RCC incidence.

2) If serum biomarkers (e.g., Vitamin D) data of RCC cases are available, we plan to include the serum biomarkers into the systematic evaluation of the effects of multiple environmental factors with the survival of RCC patients.

3) If genetic data are available (either targeted array/sequence, genome-wide association study or sequencing data), we plan to investigate the role of genetic variation (as a main effect or interaction with diet and behavioral factors) in relation to RCC incidence or survival.