No Association of Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Related Genetic Variants With Colon Cancer

BACKGROUND: Obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) are known risk factors for colon cancer. Recent reports from a number of genome wide association studies (GWAS) have identified several single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with obesity and T2D. Here we tested the hypothesis that these SNPs may also be associated with risk of colon cancer. METHODS: We genotyped nine SNPs reported in GWAS of obesity and/or T2D, including SNPs in HHEX, KCNJ11, SLC30A8, FTO, CDKN2, CDKAL1, TCF2, and the rs9300039 SNP in an intergenic region, in 561 colon cancer cases and 721 population controls. RESULTS: None of these SNPs were statistically significantly associated with colon cancer in our sample. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, these results suggest that these obesity and T2D genetic susceptibility loci are unlikely to influence the risk of colon cancer.