Date: September, 18th, Tuesday
Time: 11:45 am
Place: Little 339 (the Atrium)
Speaker: Kiranmoy Das, Dept. of Statistics, Univ. of Florida


Drinks and Pizza will be provided after the talk

Title:  A genetic model for predicting the incidence of cancer with age


Abstract:

 Cancer incidence increases with age. This epidemiological pattern of
cancer incidence can be attributed to molecular and cellular processes for
individual subjects.As an inherited disease, genes are thought to play a
central role in shaping the incidence of cancer with age.In this paper,
we derived a dynamic statistical model for explaining the epidemiological
pattern of cancer incidence based on individual genes that regulate cancer
formation and progression. We incorporate the mathematical equations of
age-specific cancer incidence into a framework for functional mapping
aimed to identify quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for dynamic changes of a
complex trait. The mathematical parameters that specify differences
in the curve of cancer incidence among QTL genotypes are estimated within
the context of maximum likelihood. We provide a series of testable
quantitative hypotheses about the initiation and duration of genetic
expression for QTLs involved in cancer progression. Computer simulation was
used to examine the statistical behavior of the model. The new model
proposed will provide a useful tool to detect genes for cancer progression
and a general framework for explaining the epidemiological pattern of
cancer incidence.