Open Access

Niki Dimou, Andre E. Kim, Orlagh Flanagan, Neil Murphy, Virginia Diez-Obrero, Anna Shcherbina, Elom K. Aglago, Emmanouil Bouras, Peter T. Campbell, Graham Casey, Steven Gallinger, Stephen B. Gruber, Mark A. Jenkins, Yi Lin, Victor Moreno, Edward Ruiz-Narvaez, Mariana C. Stern, Yu Tian, Kostas K. Tsilidis, Volker Arndt, Elizabeth L. Barry, James W. Baurley, Sonja I. Berndt, Stéphane Bézieau, Stephanie A. Bien, D. Timothy Bishop, Hermann Brenner, Arif Budiarto, Robert Carreras-Torres, Tjeng Wawan Cenggoro, Andrew T. Chan, Jenny Chang-Claude, Stephen J. Chanock, Xuechen Chen, David V. Conti, Christopher H. Dampier, Matthew Devall, David A. Drew, Jane C. Figueiredo, Graham G. Giles, Andrea Gsur, Tabitha A. Harrison, Akihisa Hidaka, Michael Hoffmeister, Jeroen R. Huyghe, Kristina Jordahl, Eric Kawaguchi, Temitope O. Keku, Susanna C. Larsson, Loic Le Marchand, Juan Pablo Lewinger, Li Li, Bharuno Mahesworo, John Morrison, Polly A. Newcomb, Christina C. Newton, Mireia Obon-Santacana, Jennifer Ose, Rish K. Pai, Julie R. Palmer, Nikos Papadimitriou, Bens Pardamean, Anita R. Peoples, Paul D. P. Pharoah, Elizabeth A. Platz, John D. Potter, Gad Rennert, Peter C. Scacheri, Robert E. Schoen, Yu-Ru Su, Catherine M. Tangen, Stephen N. Thibodeau, Duncan C. Thomas, Cornelia M. Ulrich, Caroline Y. Um, Fränzel J. B. van Duijnhoven, Kala Visvanathan, Pavel Vodicka, Ludmila Vodickova, Emily White, Alicja Wolk, Michael O. Woods, Conghui Qu, Anshul Kundaje, Li Hsu, W. James Gauderman, Marc J. Gunter, Ulrike Peters

• Background: Diabetes is an established risk factor for colorectal cancer. However, the mechanisms underlying this relationship still require investigation and it is not known if the association is modified by genetic variants. To address these questions, we undertook a genome-wide gene-environment interaction analysis. Methods: We used data from 3 genetic consortia (CCFR, CORECT, GECCO; 31,318 colorectal cancer cases/41,499 controls) and undertook genome-wide gene-environment interaction analyses with colorectal cancer risk, including interaction tests of genetics(G)xdiabetes (1-degree of freedom; d.f.) and joint testing of Gxdiabetes, G-colorectal cancer association (2-d.f. joint test) and G-diabetes correlation (3-d.f. joint test). Results: Based on the joint tests, we found that the association of diabetes with colorectal cancer risk is modified by loci on chromosomes 8q24.11 (rs3802177, SLC30A8 – ORAA: 1.62, 95% CI: 1.34–1.96; ORAG: 1.41, 95% CI: 1.30–1.54; ORGG: 1.22, 95% CI: 1.13–1.31; p-value3-d.f.: 5.46 × 10−11) and 13q14.13 (rs9526201, LRCH1 – ORGG: 2.11, 95% CI: 1.56–2.83; ORGA: 1.52, 95% CI: 1.38–1.68; ORAA: 1.13, 95% CI: 1.06–1.21; p-value2-d.f.: 7.84 × 10−09). Discussion: These results suggest that variation in genes related to insulin signaling (SLC30A8) and immune function (LRCH1) may modify the association of diabetes with colorectal cancer risk and provide novel insights into the biology underlying the diabetes and colorectal cancer relationship.