EPITHYR-ONENA

Thyroid cancer is the most frequent endocrine malignancy; differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC) accounting for more than 90% of all thyroid cancer histological types. Its reported incidence varies considerably around the world with wide geographic and ethnic variations. This differences in incidence is attributed environment (exposure to ionizing radiations, deficient or excess iodine intake, etc.) and genetic risk factors (high familial risks).

Previous GWAS project (EPITHYR)  conducted in multi-ethnic population including individuals of Oceanian ancestry from New Caledonia and French Polynesia and individuals of European ancestry, did not manage to highlight new susceptibility loci, partly because the genotyping arrays were not appropriate for these populations.  However these data, together with new high-coverage whole-genome sequencing data from Oceanians of non-European, non-Asian descent (ONENA) will improve our understanding of the genetic architecture underlying DTC in different ethnic populations and help to better understand the large ethnic variations observed in the incidence of this cancer.