Federal Grant Award Summary

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center received a $487,902 Project Grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) under the Cancer Cause and Prevention Research program (CFDA 93.393), awarded July 10, 2026, with an ultimate completion date of June 30, 2031. The award supports comprehensive research to decipher cancer pleiotropy—the shared genetic mechanisms underlying multiple cancer types—by leveraging large-scale genomic datasets and biobanks. The project will conduct genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and fine-mapping analyses across multiple cancer types, integrating whole-genome sequencing data from over 193,000 cancer cases, individual-level GWAS data for 244,000 cases, and GWAS summary statistics encompassing 1.1 million cases in discovery analyses, with planned validation studies across an additional 785,000 cancer cases.

The deliverables include identification and characterization of novel pleiotropic cancer susceptibility regions through multi-cancer GWAS and fine-mapping (Aim 1), and detailed bioinformatics analysis to characterize pleiotropic cancer regions with particular focus on the human leukocyte antigen region's cancer associations (Aim 2). By systematically studying shared genetic risk factors across cancer types rather than in isolation, this research addresses critical knowledge gaps in rare cancer genetics and leverages existing genomic resources from the UK Biobank and All of Us to provide cost-efficient, large-scale discovery of shared and distinct mechanisms contributing to cancer risk.