Figure 3.

Schematic diagram of the strategy used to select genes for functional validation. Genome-wide association studies for radiation AUC were performed with 1.3 million SNPs or 54,000 expression probe sets. A SNP locus–Expression–AUC integrated analysis was performed using loci that contained at least two SNPs associated with radiation AUC with P-values <10⁻⁴, 54,000 expression probe sets and radiation AUC associations were used to identify SNPs associated with radiation AUC through their influence on gene expression (SNP-expression P-value < 10⁻⁴, expression-AUC P-value < 10⁻³). We excluded genes that had expression levels less than 50 and have previously been known to be involved in pathways related to radiation sensitivity. Finally, 23 candidate genes were selected for functional validation studies performed with multiple cancer cell lines.