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Neuroblastoma Genome-Wide Association Study (NBL-GWAS)

Neuroblastoma is a malignancy of the developing sympathetic nervous system that most commonly affects young children and is often lethal. The etiology of this embryonal cancer is not known.

We have performed a whole genome scan for association of neuroblastoma with SNP genotypes and copy number variation to discover predisposition loci.

We therefore initiated a genome-wide association study (GWAS) in 2007 focused on neuroblastoma patients identified through the Children's Oncology Group (COG; 238 member institutions). Control patients for this study are children cared for at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) without a diagnosis of cancer. The study was designed to collect up to 5000 neuroblastoma cases and 10,000 controls and is powered to detect common susceptibility variants in Caucasian and African American patients. Whole genome genotyping is being performed on the Illumina HH550 SNP array.