Powerful multilocus tests of genetic association in the presence of gene-gene and gene-environment interactions

A multilocus test of genetic association is proposed, which can account for genetic effects that might be modified by variants in other genes or by environmental factors. The powerful advantages of this method is demonstrated both in analysis of data from a case-control study of the association between colorectal adenoma and DNA variants in the NAT2 genomic region that are well known to be related to a common biological phenotype and under different models of gene-gene interactions with use of simulated data.