Genetic Link to Skin Cancer Found in Medical Records

Researchers uncover new ties between genetics and skin cancer by mining patients’ medical records.

Usually, studying the relationship between DNA and disease involves comparing the genomes of thousands of people with a disorder to the genomes of thousands of people who don’t. These studies can be expensive and may take years, requiring researchers to identify patients, enroll them in the study, and collect the genomic data.

A more cost-effective and speedier alternative is to mine the growing pool of genetic data in electronic medical records [EMR], report researchers in Nature Biotechnology on Sunday. These records chronicle a patient’s health care history, which can include physician’s notes, lab test results, and the billing codes hospitals submit to health insurance companies to receive payments.

The study examined 13,000 EMRs, but in the future, similar studies could look benefit from much larger data sets. While not all patient records contain the genetic data needed to drive this kind of research, that is expected to change now that DNA analysis has become faster and more affordable in recent years and more and more companies and hospitals offer genetic analysis as part of medical care...