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Letter

Nature Genetics 41, 811–815 (1 July 2009) | doi:10.1038/ng.393

Common variation in KITLG and at 5q31.3 predisposes to testicular germ cell cancer

Peter A Kanetsky , Nandita Mitra , Saran Vardhanabhuti , Mingyao Li , David J Vaughn , Richard Letrero , Stephanie L Ciosek , David R Doody , Lauren M Smith , JoEllen Weaver , Anthony Albano , Chu Chen , Jacqueline R Starr , Daniel J Rader , Andrew K Godwin , Muredach P Reilly , Hakon Hakonarson , Stephen M Schwartz & Katherine L Nathanson

Testicular germ cell tumors (TGCT) have been expected to have a strong underlying genetic component. We conducted a genome-wide scan among 277 TGCT cases and 919 controls and found that seven markers at 12p22 within KITLG (c-KIT ligand) reached genome-wide significance (P |[minus]|8 in discovery).