Four candidate loci, rs965513 (9q22.33), rs944289 (14q13.3), rs966423 (2q35) and rs2439302 (8p12), identified by genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) risk in European population were confirmed in a Chinese population. rs944289 was also associated with an increased benign thyroid tumor risk. The PTC risk of carriers of risk alleles was shown to increase with accumulating number of risk alleles. Functional prediction by bioinformatic analysis showed that rs966423 (2q35) and rs2439302 (8p12) are located within CTCF binding regions, which may change the transcriptional regulation of DIRC3 and NRG1, respectively. (By Dr. Yu-Long Wang, http://jmg.bmj.com/content/early/2013/07/10/jmedgenet-2013-101687 )