Publications

These publications are examples of research made possible with data from CanPath and its regional cohorts.

2016

A Genome-Wide Association Study to Identify Potential Germline Copy Number Variants for Sporadic Breast Cancer Susceptibility

Authors: Y Sapkota, A Narasimhan, M Kumaran, B. Sehrawat, S.Damaraju

The study wanted to determine which CNVs (copy number variations) are assoicated with sporadic BC. They also wanted to 2 distinct CNV calling algorithms to identify false positives and finally the aim of the study is identify potential candidate CNVs for follow-up replication studies.

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2015

G1 Gene-environment-lifestyle factors in breast cancer susceptibility: machine learning tools to build predictive models

Authors: Jay Patel, Nasimeh Asgarian, Paula Robson, Russ Greiner, John Mackey, Sambasivarao Damaraju

This study hoped to build predictive models for personalized breast screening. They were able to develop good predictive models for etiologies that would cause disease, and hope their model will aid in preventing breast cancer.

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2015

Are Physical Activity Levels Linked to Nutrient Adequacy? Implications for Cancer Risk

Authors: I Cszimadi, LE Kelemen, T Speidel, Y Yuan, LC Dale, CM Friedenreich, PJ Robson

This study showed that higher PAL would promote better health and have DRIs which would help promote potential cancer-preventing nutrients. Benefits of higher PAIs may extend beyond the usual benefits attributed to physical activity.

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2015

Leisure-Time Physical Activity Does not Attenuate the Association Between Occupational Sedentary Behavior and Obesity: Results From Alberta’s Tomorrow Project.

Authors: Joshua Nicholas, Geraldine Lo Siou, Brigid Lynch, Paula Robson, Christine Friedenrich, and Ilona Csizmadi

Using ATP data, this study determined that those in sedendary jobs are more at higher risk of obesity and was not attenuated by physical activity. Women did not show the same risk with sedendary behaviour.

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2014

The Sedentary Time and Activity Reporting Questionnaire (STAR-Q): reliability and validity against doubly labeled water and 7-day activity diaries.

Authors: Ilona Csizmadi, Heather K. Neilson, Karen A. Kopciuk, Farah Khandwala, Andrew Liu, Christine M. Friedenreich, Yutaka Yasui, Rémi Rabasa-Lhoret, Heather E. Bryant, David C. W. Lau, and Paula J. Robson

The research team put together a STAR-Q to estimate past-month energy expenditure. They looked at 102 adults over a two week period. The STAR-Q demonstrated substantial validity for estimating occupational sedentary time and strenuous activity and fair validity for ranking individuals by AEE.

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2014

Conditions Associated with Circulating Tumor-Associated Folate Receptor 1 Protein in Healthy Men and Women

Authors: Linda Keleman, James Brenton, Christine Parkinson, Hayley Whitaker, Anna Piskorz, Ilona Csizmadi, Paula Robson

This article examined how FOLR1 protein could potentially be way to detect early cancer. The team used electrochemical luminescence immunoassay. The study concluded that they should use caution when saying that serum FOLR1 can detect early cancer as there has not been a study with enough evidence to truly determine that.

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2013

Cognitive Testing of the STAR-Q: Insights in Activity and Sedentary Time Reporting

Authors: H Neilson, R. Ullman, P Robson, C. Friedenreich., I Csizmadi

STAR-Q is essentially a questionnare that determines how to assess overall activity/sedendary behaviour. The reason for this study was that they wanted to see how active people are. Participants from the Alberta Tomorrow Project were used.

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2013

Identification of a Breast Cancer Susceptibility Locus at 4q31.22 Using a Genome-Wide Association Study Paradigm

Authors: Yadav Sapkota,Yutaka Yasui,Raymond Lai,Malinee Sridharan,Paula J. Robson,Carol E. Cass,John R. Mackey,Sambasivarao Damaraju

The study design also encompassed the 11 variants from GWASs previously reported by various consortia between the years 2007-2009 to (i) enable comparisons of effect sizes, and (ii) identify putative prognostic variants across studies. All SNP associations reported with breast cancer were also adjusted for body mass index (BMI). We report a strong association with 4q31.22-rs1429142 (combined per allele odds ratio and 95% confidence interval = 1.28 [1.17-1.41] and P combined = 1.5×10(-7)), when adjusted for BMI.

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2013

Assessing SNP-SNP Interactions among DNA Repair, Modification and Metabolism Related Pathway Genes in Breast Cancer Susceptibility

Authors: Yadav Sapkota,John R. Mackey,Raymond Lai,Conrado Franco-Villalobos,Sasha Lupichuk,Paula J. Robson,Karen Kopciuk,Carol E. Cass,Yutaka Yasui,Sambasivarao Damaraju

Our results provide a framework for evaluating SNPs showing statistically weak but reproducible single-locus effects for epistatic effects contributing to disease susceptibility.

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2013

ETHNOPRED: a novel machine learning method for accurate continental and sub-continental ancestry identification and population stratification correction

Authors: Mohsen Hajiloo, Yadav Sapkota, John R Mackey, Paula Robson, Russell Greiner & Sambasivarao Damaraju

This study looked at ways of getting around the limits of self-declared ancestry, ancestry information markers, genomic control, structured association, and principal component analysis. They found ETHNOPRED to be a good alternative.

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