Research Perspectives:
What are genome-wide association studies telling us about B-cell tumor development?
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Received: August 9, 2010, Accepted: August 16, 2010, Published: September 11, 2010
It has long been speculated that common genetic variation influences the development of B-cell malignancy, however until recently evidence for this assertion was lacking. The advent of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) has allowed the search for this class of susceptibility allele to be conducted on a genome-wide basis. Recent GWAS of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) have identified novel disease genes for CLL and ALL and underscore the importance of polymorphic variation in B-cell development genes as determinants of leukemia risk.