Here is an example of an abstract with no results that was accepted for a conference: http://www.aacrmeetingabstracts.org/cgi/content/abstract/2004/1/254

Epidemiology 3: Immune Response and Exposure Modifying Genes in Diverse Neoplasms

Abstract #1115

Evaluation of genetic susceptibility for non-Hodgkin lymphoma in the InterLymph consortium

Nathaniel Rothman, Christine Skibola, Gareth Morgan, Paul Brennan, Sophia Wang, Martyn Smith, Paolo Boffetta, Meredith Yeager, Angela Brooks-Wilson, John Spinelli, Bruce Armstrong, Sholom Wacholder, Nikolaus Becker, James Cerhan, Brian Chiu, Wendy Cozen, Scott Davis, Lenka Foretova, Maria Grazia Ennas, Patricia Hartge, Jose Iscovich, Qing Lan, Marc Maynadié, Patrick Moore, Silvia De Sanjose, Richard Severson, Anthony Staines, Martine Vornanen, Eleanor Willett, Tongzhang Zheng, Stephen Chanock and Alexandra Nieters
NCI, NIH, DHHS, Bethesda, MD, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, U. Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom, IARC, Lyon, France, BC Cancer Agency, Vancouver, BC, Canada, U. Sydney, Sydney, Australia, DKFZ, Heidelberg, Germany, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, Northwestern U., Chicago, IL, USC, Los Angeles, CA, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, Masaryk Cancer Institute, Brno, Czech Republic, U. Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy, Selikoff Center for Environmental Health and Human Development, Ranana, Israel, CHU de Dijon, Dijon, France, Università di Verona, Verona, Italy, Catalan Institute of Oncology, Barcelona, Spain, Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, Detroit, MI, Yale University, New Haven, CT

The incidence of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) has steadily increased worldwide for many years and is still present after taking into account changing diagnostic patterns and HIV infection rates. Although most other important risk factors have yet to be identified, there is substantial evidence suggesting a relationship with conditions that alter the immune system. A consortium that includes essentially all case-control studies currently being carried out in Europe, North America and Australia has recently been formed (InterLymph) to help stimulate and coordinate etiologic studies of lymphoma. Studies are using the new WHO classification of lymphoproliferative disorders and have comparable questionnaire data for most key lifestyle and environmental exposures. InterLymph will have substantial power to study the main effects of less common SNPs, gene-environment interactions and rare sub-entities. Most studies with complete enrollment plan to carry out genotyping of an initial group of SNPs in genes that play a role in regulating the immune system, including IL1A, IL1RN, IL1B, IL2, IL6, IL10, TNF, LTA, and NOD2. The SNP list will be expanded based on interest and resources over the coming years. A set of DNA samples from 102 ethnically diverse individuals that have been sequenced and analyzed on one or more platforms as part of the SNP500Cancer project (http://snp500cancer.nci.nih.gov) will serve as gold standards. Further, a round-robin of sample exchange will assure genotyping consistency across participating laboratories. Initial results from the analysis of SNPs in the above genes will be presented and analytic issues will be discussed, including an approach that will help evaluate the probability that statistically significant associations are false positive findings.