Each page covers one condition properly: what it actually is and what it feels like, what causes it, how common it really is and in whom, and how it's diagnosed — followed by the specific variants with a replicated link to it, and, where the research supports it, how genetics can change the way a medicine behaves.
Written in two registers so one page serves both readers: plain language first, then a clinical detail section with the precise terminology, effect sizes and diagnostic thresholds. Every claim is sourced from freely-available published research and cited on the page, so you can check us — or hand the page to your doctor. 385 conditions so far, growing continuously, and free to reuse with attribution (CC BY 4.0).
37 results in Cancer
Clearing hepatitis C virus does not reverse liver scarring already present, and people cured with advanced fibrosis keep a real cancer risk for years. A study of 943 cured patients found one variant, in TLL1, that predicts who — independent of the fibrosis and clinical factors already used to judge that risk.
Read more → CancerAlmost always caused by persistent infection with high-risk HPV, which vaccination and screening already address directly. A study of Han Chinese women found a new susceptibility locus at 4q12 — this page's one variant, in the gene EXOC1 — alongside a known immune-gene association.
Read more → CancerChronic hepatitis B is the leading cause of liver cancer worldwide, but most people with it never develop the disease. Two independent loci, found in two separate studies, each separate who does from who doesn't — one confirmed six times over in more than 3,700 people, the other backed by lab experiments pointing to a tumour-suppressor gene.
Read more → CancerA tumour-specific subtype of lung cancer, two to five times more common in East Asian patients and the reason a targeted drug class works dramatically better for some patients than others. This page holds one confirmed and one newly found inherited risk locus for it.
Read more → CancerThe most common gynaecological cancer in high-income countries. The largest genetic study of it did not stop at a statistical signal — it showed in the laboratory that the lead variant's region physically touches the promoter of the gene it sits near.
Read more → CancerOne of the more genetic common cancers, and two studies from the same group both point the same way: the loci that raise risk also lower thyroid-stimulating hormone, and the strongest one sits on the gene that builds the thyroid gland in the embryo.
Read more → CancerTwo different cancers share the same tube. The squamous type is the cancer of East Asia and its genetics lead straight to the alcohol flush gene, and to a lifestyle a person can change; the adenocarcinoma type is the fastest rising cancer of high-income countries and grows out of years of reflux. This page holds variants for both and keeps them apart.
Read more → CancerOne of the lowest survival rates of any cancer, because it is usually found late. The first genome-wide scan of it returned the blood group gene, confirming an observation from decades of hospital records, and the later ones returned the genes that build the pancreas and make its digestive enzymes.
Read more → CancerA cancer of the cells that make antibodies, often found by accident on a blood test, and among the common cancers one of the most strongly familial. The genes that come out of the scans are immunity genes, which is the answer the biology would predict.
Read more → CancerThe most common cancer in the world, and one of the least discussed. Its genetics was found by sequencing 2,636 Icelanders and imputing into a quarter of a million people — and one of the variants sits in TP53 itself.
Read more → CancerAn odds ratio of 2.55 for one common variant — several times anything on this site's other cancer pages. Testicular cancer is unusual twice over: it strikes young men, and its common genetics is unusually strong.
Read more → CancerA protective allele rather than a risk one, and stronger for one subtype than for the disease as a whole. As with breast cancer, the genetics that changes decisions is BRCA — this is the other kind.
Read more → CancerSmoking causes most bladder cancer, and blood in the urine is the symptom that matters. The variant here is unusual in a small way: it destroys a start codon, so what it does to the protein can be seen rather than guessed.
Read more → CancerOdds ratios of 1.06 and 1.09 — small enough that the honest use of this page is to explain what a common cancer variant is, and to point at the two things that actually work: screening on schedule, and knowing whether Lynch syndrome runs in the family.
Read more → CancerThe genetics that changes what anyone does about breast cancer is BRCA1 and BRCA2 — rare, strong, and tested for properly. The variants here are the other kind: common, weak, and useful for understanding the disease rather than for deciding anything.
Read more → CancerCommon in older men, often slow enough never to cause harm, and hard to screen well for exactly that reason. The variant here is one of the few reported to associate more strongly with the aggressive form than with the indolent one.
Read more → CancerSmoking causes most lung cancer and quitting helps at any age — neither fact depends on a genotype. The interesting genetics is one locus in the nicotine receptor cluster, and an argument from 2008 about whether it acts through smoking or through the lung that has never been fully settled.
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One diagnosed condition or measurable trait covered properly: what it actually is, what causes it, how common it is, how it is diagnosed, and the specific variants with a replicated link to it — every claim sourced from published research.
No. Every page here is informational, not a diagnosis. A result should be discussed with a doctor or a licensed genetic counselor, never acted on alone.
Because they are not disorders. Height, ABO blood group and a handful of others describe a measurable characteristic with nothing to diagnose — "Trait" says so plainly instead of implying a disease that is not one.
Only after a replicated association in published research, verified against the primary study rather than a gene name or a marketing claim — the same discipline the variant pages themselves follow.