The Brain Cancer Working Group

Brain tumours and especially gliomas are tumours that are not easily cured, and the most malignant form glioblastoma have very poor survival.

The etiology of brain tumours is not well defined, ionizing radiation, an inverse association with asthma and allergies and genetic factors are the establish causes. These factors only explain a low number of the cases.

The EPIC Brain Cancer Working Group tries to understand the underlying causes of glioma and other types of brain tumours, by using several different study designs of molecular epidemiology for example by genome wide association studies, and investigating metabolites and other biomarkers in blood in relation to diagnosis, using different cohorts.

Our overall aim is to gain a deeper understanding of the underlying mechanisms for brain tumour development.

Selected publications:

  1. Melin BS, Barnholtz-Sloan JS, Wrensch MR, Johansen C, Il'yasova D, Kinnersley B, Ostrom QT, Labreche K, Chen Y, Armstrong G, Liu Y, Eckel-Passow JE, Decker PA, Labussière M, Idbaih A, Hoang-Xuan K, Di Stefano AL, Mokhtari K, Delattre JY, Broderick P, Galan P, Gousias K, Schramm J, Schoemaker MJ, Fleming SJ, Herms S, Heilmann S, Nöthen MM, Wichmann HE, Schreiber S, Swerdlow A, Lathrop M, Simon M, Sanson M, Andersson U, Rajaraman P, Chanock S, Linet M, Wang Z, Yeager M; GliomaScan Consortium, Wiencke JK, Hansen H, McCoy L, Rice T, Kosel ML, Sicotte H, Amos CI, Bernstein JL, Davis F, Lachance D, Lau C, Merrell RT, Shildkraut J, Ali-Osman F, Sadetzki S, Scheurer M, Shete S, Lai RK, Claus EB, Olson SH, Jenkins RB, Houlston RS, Bondy ML. Genome-wide association study of glioma subtypes identifies specific differences in genetic susceptibility to glioblastoma and non-glioblastoma tumors. Nat Genet. 2017 May;49(5):789-794. doi: 10.1038/ng.3823. Epub 2017 Mar 27. PMID: 28346443.
  2. Rajaraman P, Melin BS, Wang Z, McKean-Cowdin R, Michaud DS, Wang SS, Bondy M, Houlston R, Jenkins RB, Wrensch M, Yeager M, Ahlbom A, Albanes D, Andersson U, Freeman LE, Buring JE, Butler MA, Braganza M, Carreon T, Feychting M, Fleming SJ, Gapstur SM, Gaziano JM, Giles GG, Hallmans G, Henriksson R, Hoffman-Bolton J, Inskip PD, Johansen C, Kitahara CM, Lathrop M, Liu C, Le Marchand L, Linet MS, Lonn S, Peters U, Purdue MP, Rothman N, Ruder AM, Sanson M, Sesso HD, Severi G, Shu XO, Simon M, Stampfer M, Stevens VL, Visvanathan K, White E, Wolk A, Zeleniuch-Jacquotte A, Zheng W, Decker P, Enciso-Mora V, Fridley B, Gao YT, Kosel M, Lachance DH, Lau C, Rice T, Swerdlow A, Wiemels JL, Wiencke JK, Shete S, Xiang YB, Xiao Y, Hoover RN, Fraumeni JF Jr, Chatterjee N, Hartge P, Chanock SJ. Genome-wide association study of glioma and meta-analysis. Hum Genet. 2012 Dec;131(12):1877-88. doi: 10.1007/s00439-012-1212-0. Epub 2012 Aug 11. PMID: 22886559.
  3. Schlehofer B, Siegmund B, Linseisen J, Schüz J, Rohrmann S, Becker S, Michaud D, Melin B, Bas Bueno-de-Mesquita H, Peeters PH, Vineis P, Tjonneland A, Olsen A, Overvad K, Romieu I, Boeing H, Aleksandrova K, Trichopoulou A, Bamia C, Lagiou P, Sacerdote C, Palli D, Panico S, Sieri S, Tumino R, Sanchez MJ, Rodriguez L, Dorronsoro M, Duell EJ, Chirlaque MD, Barricarte A, Borgquist S, Manjer J, Gallo V, Allen NE, Key TJ, Riboli E, Kaaks R, Wahrendorf J. Primary brain tumours and specific serum immunoglobulin E: a case-control study nested in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition cohort. Allergy. 2011 Nov;66(11):1434-41. doi: 10.1111/j.1398-9995.2011.02670.x. Epub 2011 Jul 5. PMID: 21726235.

Contact details/Working Group leader

Beatrice Melin, MD, PhD
Department of Radiation Sciences
Umeå University
901 87 Umeå, Sweden
Beatrice.melin@umu.se