Subscribe to RSS
DOI: 10.1055/s-0038-1651801
Truncating variants in DNA-repair genes and their effect on AAO of hereditary breast cancer
Publication History
Publication Date:
22 May 2018 (online)
Inherited mutations in BRCA1 increase the risk of breast cancer up to 65% by age 70 in female carriers. There is a diversity in the lifetime risk of developing breast cancer among carriers of BRCA1 mutation. The cause of this variability is largely unknown but it is hypothesized that additional genetic factors contribute to the variable age at onset (AAO). Here we studied the role of mutations or rare variants in DNA repair genes in modifying the age of onset of hereditary breast cancer.
Next generation sequencing was used to screen 133 women positive for BRCA1 mutations and an AAO of breast cancer either below 35 (early AAO cohort) or above 60 years of age (Late AAO cohort) for mutations in 311 DNA-repair genes.
The patients in early AAO (73 women) manifested breast cancer at a mean age of 26.3 ± 2.1yrs while patients in the late AAO group (60 women) had developed breast cancer at a mean age of 68.8 ± 7.3yrs. 3703 variants were detected in all patients and 43 of those (1.1%) were presumed to be deleterious. Pathogenic variants were found in 36 genes other than BRCA1. 26 women in the early AAO group (35.6%; 95%-CI 24.7% to 47.7%) carried a germline DNA-repair mutation compared to 16 women of the late AAO cohort (26.7%; 95%-CI 16.1% to 39.7%). The incidence of germline mutations in DNA repair genes did not differ between both AAO cohorts (odds ratio: 1.5; 95%-CI 0.7 to 3.2; p-value = 0.35).