Another key issue that was raised throughout the Think Tank was the question of statistical significance thresholds for GxE interactions. Even for candidate gene GxE interactions, a traditional nominal p<0.05 cut off will not suffice because multiple comparisons are typically performed. The lack of multiple testing corrections, coupled with publication bias, leads to an increase in the rate of publication of false positive findings; thus obscuring true positives. Notably, a recent review of NCI’s external funding portfolio and the literature suggests publication biases resulting from not publishing null findings [Ghazarian, et al. 2013].
