Blood Samples From Healthy Volunteers for Genetic Studies in the East Anglia Region of the United Kingdom

A Population Based Control Collection for Genetic Studies in East Anglia

RATIONALE: Studying samples of blood from healthy volunteers in the laboratory may help doctors learn more about changes that occur in DNA and identify biomarkers related to cancer.

PURPOSE: This study is looking at genetic susceptibility to cancer and interactions between genes and the environment in healthy volunteers.

OBJECTIVES:

• To obtain blood samples and simple epidemiological information on a population-based series of adult individuals without cancer.
• To establish whether polymorphisms in putative cancer predisposition genes are associated with an increased risk of cancer by comparing the frequency of alterations in these genes with the corresponding frequency in a comparable series of cancer patients.
• To examine the interactions between genetic and non-genetic risk factors.

OUTLINE: This is a multicenter study.

Participants complete a simple epidemiological questionnaire.

Participants undergo blood sample collection. DNA is extracted from these samples for polymorphism analysis of low penetrance cancer susceptibility genes in the following related clinical trials: MREC-SEARCH-CANCER, MREC-SEARCH-PROSTATE, and MREC-SEARCH-BREAST. They may also be used in the analyses of the following related clinical trials: MREC-SEARCH-OVARIAN, MREC-SEARCH-ENDOMETRIAL, MREC-SEARCH-COLORECTAL.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 2,000 male and 2,000 female participants will be accrued for this study.

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Cancer-free participants randomly selected from the age-sex registry of a general practice in the East Anglia region of the United Kingdom

  • Two general practices from each district within East Anglia participate (up to 10 total participating practices)

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

• Identified by the participant's general practitioner as fit to contact for this study
• No prior diagnosis of cancer
• No serious mental illness or retardation

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

• Not specified