THURSDAY, July 9 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers have identified five genes that may contribute to the risk of developing a glioma, the most common type of brain tumor, according to a study published July 5 in Nature Genetics.

Sanjay Shete, Ph.D., of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, and colleagues conducted a meta-analysis of pooled data from two genome-wide association studies in the United States and United Kingdom with a total of 1,878 cases and 3,670 controls. Validation was performed in three additional study series totaling 2,545 cases and 2,953 controls.

The researchers genotyped 572,571 single nucleotide polymorphisms with 34 of those demonstrating evidence of association with glioma. After carrying out replication studies in the three validation series, the researchers narrowed their focus to 14 single nucleotide polymorphisms representing five genetic loci with risk for glioma at 8q24.21, 5p15.33, 9p21.3, 20q13.33 and 11q23.3.

"These data show that common low-penetrance susceptibility alleles contribute to the risk of developing glioma and provide insight into disease causation of this primary brain tumor," the authors conclude.

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