To refine the observed association between CBC and SNPs in the vicinity of FGFR2, we genotyped five haplotype-tagging SNPs, in addition to rs2981582, in all 2,102 available WECARE Study participants and found alleles at four of the six SNPs that were individually associated with risk of CBC (Additional file 1, Table S1). Here, FGFR2 is linked to complete blood cell count.