Genetic Polymorphisms and Disease

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Abstract
Reports of the association of allelic variants with common diseases will soon accelerate, driven by the twin engines of genomic sequencing and the discovery of polymorphisms. Three reports in the Journal — by Hershey et al. (Dec. 11 issue),1 Iacoviello et al. (Jan. 8 issue),2 and Kuivenhoven et al. (Jan 8 issue)3 — describe such associations, and accompanying editorials4,5 examine issues of clinical utility and biologic plausibility. But before addressing these matters, we must first convince ourselves that putative associations are real. We raise two issues that should promote caution.