The role of Bilirubin in Colorectal Cancer and Cardiovascular Disease Development
Funding Body: FWF-Austrian Science Fund, Project No. P29608
Duration: 2017-2020
Principal Investigator:
Karl-Heinz Wagner
Heinz Freisling, Co-Project leader, IARC, France
Main Project group:
Nazlisadat Seyed Khoei, PhD student
Claudia Lang, PhD student
Master students:
Yvonne Hirtl
Paulina Eder
Antonia Klimpke
Lan Vi Tran
Elisabeth Sperr
Lina Maqboul
Sandra Reitinger
Cooperation partners:
Dr. Heinz Freisling, IARC, Lyon,
A/Prof. Ali Moazzami, SLU, Uppsala, Sweden
Short description: Data linking subjects with higher bilirubin concentrations to CRC but also to underlying mechanisms regarding CVD protection such as lipid metabolism or body composition from large prospective studies are missing.
With this proposal we want to close this gap by having the unique possibility to have access to three very large studies/datasets (EPIC: European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition; UK Biobank and GECCO: the Genetics and Epidemiology of Colorectal Cancer Consortium) to explore key questions around bilirubin metabolism and colorectal cancer as well as CVD and total mortality in more than 35.000 subjects. The study is the largest so far linking prospective CRC cases with bilirubin metabolism. We will further investigate the link between already existing genetic data which are strongly associated with elevated circulating total bilirubin levels to CRC and CVD, CVD risk marker as well as total mortality. These studies with the large data sets will help to understand the role of bilirubin metabolism in CVD and CRC development and establish a new preclinical biomarker for disease prediction. Specific focus will be given on gender, aging and age related effects.