Beyond GWAS: the next 10 years of InterLymph

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This is to be the 10th annual meeting of the International Lymphoma Epidemiology Consortium ("InterLymph"), an international group of epidemiologists, statisticians, geneticists, basic scientists, and clinicians collaborating to elucidate the causes of the several varieties of non- Hodgkin lymphoma and related neoplasms (Hodgkin lymphoma and multiple myeloma). These investigators convene to address the unknown causation and the substantial annual increase in incidence of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and the confusion arising from the frequent changes in classification, the widespread non-recognition of clear etiologic differences between subgroups, the inadequacy of available exposure measurement, the constraints faced by individual investigators, and the need to pool results across international boundaries, both for statistical power and comprehensive coverage. Working subgroups address specific issues defined by clinical subgroup and etiologic hypotheses. Collaborative projects are reviewed and updated, findings exchanged, new collaborative studies developed and policies formulated. The program and theme of each meeting is developed by an organizing committee working with the meeting host, who is an investigator in one of the member studies, and who brings together pertinent local experts as outside speakers. The meeting site usually rotates between North America and the other member study locations. The 2011 meeting will be hosted by Professor Pierluigi Cocco from the University of Cagliari in Italy, and the program will be developed by the Chair of the Organizing Committee (Dr. Wendy Cozen, PI), along with other members of the Organizing Committee (Drs. Christine Skibola, Paolo Boffetta, and Henrik Hjalgrim). The theme is "Beyond GWAS: the next 10 years of InterLymph". We plan to review all completed genome-wide association study results, promote the development of new collaborative gene-environment, gene-gene, and environment-environment interactions, concentrating on subtype-specific results and potential translational issues. In addition to the working-group sessions, there will be a program of speakers, including key guest speakers, and poster sessions for junior investigators and students. Approximately 100 attendees are expected and will include investigators from 18 institutions with completed or ongoing epidemiologic studies of lymphoma on multiple continents with over 16,000 cases and 16,000 controls from four continents. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Non-Hodgkin lymphomas are a diverse group of malignancies with a common hematological origin but diverse biological, epidemiological, and clinical characteristics. Increasing in incidence over the past four or five decades at rates of 3-4% annually, even excluding the larger increase attributable the AIDS epidemic. These neoplasms therefore constitute a major cancer subgroup of obscure etiology and no current means of prevention. This will be the tenth meeting of an international group of investigators (the International Lymphoma Epidemiological Consortium ("InterLymph") convened to overcome the many difficulties of lymphoma investigation: frequent pathologic reclassification, multiple subtypes, difficult exposure classification, and diverse research methodologies. As the previous meetings of this group have been, this meeting will be a combination of idea exchange, with speakers, outside key speakers, and posters, and a series of working sessions of collaborating scientists, who have pooled resources to mount a collective attack on the ignorance concerning the causation of these malignancies with studies of known and suspected environmental causes, the genetic underpinnings, and the interactions between them.