Genetics and Quality of Life
Section snippets
Genetic Predispositions for Psychological Variables
Bouchard and Loehlin argued that much social science research is seriously compromised if it does not incorporate genetic variation in its exploratory models. There is abundant empirical evidence that virtually all human psychological traits are influenced by genetic factors to a significant degree. A great deal has been learned about the role of genetic influences on personality in recent years.
Recent research has suggested a genetic predisposition for depression, suicide, alcoholism, smoking,
Genetics and Cancer-Related QOL
It is not a giant leap of faith then to expect that there should be a relationship between an individual’s genetic makeup and the manner in which an individual reacts to the stress of a cancer diagnosis or the trajectory that the individual tracks through the disease process. On an intuitive level, one may say there is reason to suggest a genetic background to why some people are simply more energetic and enjoy a better QOL in the same way that there are genetic predispositions for physical
Future Investigation
In this exploratory study, we looked at only a few markers and specifically targeted QOL endpoints related to colorectal cancer. We are continuing to explore this research hypothesis involving other candidate genes that we believe may be related specifically to the cancer diagnosis and etiology. Recall that in our study the genes were not specifically chosen for a relationship with QOL, but instead with the treatments involved in the clinical trial. We believe there are other more specific
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Cited by (23)
Chapter 28 - Quality of life and hepatobiliary tumors
2016, Blumgart's Surgery of the Liver, Biliary Tract and Pancreas: Sixth EditionCancer-related fatigue
2011, Supportive Oncology: (Expert Consult - Online and Print)Cancer-related fatigue
2011, Supportive OncologyReflections on genes and sustainable change: toward a trait and state conceptualization of response shift
2009, Journal of Clinical EpidemiologyCitation Excerpt :Genetic research has been successful in identifying chromosomal regions and genetic variants for related attributes, such as depression [44], cognition [45], and pain [46]. However, to date, only Sloan and Xingua [47] have examined the direct link between polymorphisms and HRQOL. Using data from a cancer clinical trial, they found preliminary evidence for relationships in cancer patients between overall quality of life, symptom distress, and fatigue with variant genotypes.
North Central Cancer Treatment Group-Achievements and Perspectives
2008, Seminars in OncologyCitation Excerpt :This idea arose from work on methods to identify prognostic QOL end points analogous to approaches used to find prognostic surrogate end point biomarkers (SEBs) in treatment trials.114-116 Data derived from the practice-changing colorectal cancer trial N9741 to test this hypothesis were presented in a plenary session at the 2004 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.117,118 Results provided preliminary evidence of a genetic component within a patient's response to a cancer diagnosis, even before treatment is initiated.