Quantitative Issues in Cancer Research Working Seminar

Margaux HujoelDoctoral Student, Department of Biostatistics, Harvard University”Identifiability of a Cancer-resistance Genotypes”ABSTRACT: There is an open question as to whether cancer-resistant genotypes exist (Klein 2009 PNAS). Although individuals who don’t develop cancer may lack mutations that make them susceptible, there is an alternative hypothesis that some of these individuals may in fact have genotypes that make them resistant to cancer. Rather than viewing cancer resistance as a “mirror image” of susceptibility, we aim to study cancer resistance as a distinct entity. Through simulation studies, we try to address two main questions. If a small group of individuals were resistant to cancer, would we be able to identify that such a group existed? And if so, could we estimate the prevalence of this resistance genotype?