Genetic variants in DNA repair pathway genes and risk of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and gastric adenocarcinoma in a Chinese population
CARCINOGENESIS
Authors: Li, Wen-Qing; Hu, Nan; Hyland, Paula L.; Gao, Ying; Wang, Zhao-Ming; Yu, Kai; Su, Hua; Wang, Chao-Yu; Wang, Le-Min; Chanock, Stephen J.; Burdett, Laurie; Ding, Ti; Qiao, You-Lin; Fan, Jin-Hu; Wang, Yuan; Xu, Yi; Shi, Jian-Xin; Gu, Fangyi; Wheeler, William; Xiong, Xiao-Qin; Giffen, Carol; Tucker, Margaret A.; Dawsey, Sanford M.; Freedman, Neal D.; Abnet, Christian C.; Goldstein, Alisa M.; Taylor, Philip R.
Abstract
The DNA repair pathways help to maintain genomic integrity and therefore genetic variation in the pathways could affect the propensity to develop cancer. Selected germline single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the pathways have been associated with esophageal cancer and gastric cancer (GC) but few studies have comprehensively examined the pathway genes. We aimed to investigate associations between DNA repair pathway genes and risk of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) and GC, using data from a genome-wide association study in a Han Chinese population where ESCC and GC are the predominant cancers. In sum, 1942 ESCC cases, 1758 GC cases and 2111 controls from the Shanxi Upper Gastrointestinal Cancer Genetics Project (discovery set) and the Linxian Nutrition Intervention Trials (replication set) were genotyped for 1675 SNPs in 170 DNA repair-related genes. Logistic regression models were applied to evaluate SNP-level associations. Gene- and pathway-level associations were determined using the resampling-based adaptive rank-truncated product approach. The DNA repair pathways overall were significantly associated with risk of ESCC (P 6.37 10(4)), but not with GC (P 0.20). The most significant gene in ESCC was CHEK2 (P 2.00 10(6)) and in GC was CLK2 (P 3.02 10(4)). We observed several other genes significantly associated with either ESCC (SMUG1, TDG, TP53, GTF2H3, FEN1, POLQ, HEL308, RAD54B, MPG, FANCE and BRCA1) or GC risk (MRE11A, RAD54L and POLE) (P < 0.05). We provide evidence for an association between specific genes in the DNA repair pathways and the risk of ESCC and GC. Further studies are warranted to validate these associations and to investigate underlying mechanisms.
Germline Mutations in Cancer Predisposition Genes are Frequent in Sporadic Sarcomas
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
Authors: Chan, Sock Hoai; Lim, Weng Khong; Ishak, Nur Diana Binte; Li, Shao-Tzu; Goh, Wei Lin; Tan, Gek San; Lim, Kiat Hon; Teo, Melissa; Young, Cedric Ng Chuan; Malik, Simeen; Tan, Mann Hong; Teh, Jonathan Yi Hui; Chin, Francis Kuok Choon; Kesavan, Sittampalam; Selvarajan, Sathiyamoorthy; Tan, Patrick; Teh, Bin Tean; Soo, Khee Chee; Farid, Mohamad; Quek, Richard; Ngeow, Joanne
Abstract
Associations of sarcoma with inherited cancer syndromes implicate genetic predisposition in sarcoma development. However, due to the apparently sporadic nature of sarcomas, little attention has been paid to the role genetic susceptibility in sporadic sarcoma. To address this, we performed targeted-genomic sequencing to investigate the prevalence of germline mutations in known cancer-associated genes within an Asian cohort of sporadic sarcoma patients younger than 50 years old. We observed 13.6% (n = 9) amongst 66 patients harbour at least one predicted pathogenic germline mutation in 10 cancer-associated genes including ATM, BRCA2, ERCC4, FANCC, FANCE, FANCI, MSH6, POLE, SDHA and TP53. The most frequently affected genes are involved in the DNA damage repair pathway, with a germline mutation prevalence of 10.6%. Our findings suggests that genetic predisposition plays a larger role than expected in our Asian cohort of sporadic sarcoma, therefore clinicians should be aware of the possibility that young sarcoma patients may be carriers of inherited mutations in cancer genes and should be considered for genetic testing, regardless of family history. The prevalence of germline mutations in DNA damage repair genes imply that therapeutic strategies exploiting the vulnerabilities resulting from impaired DNA repair may be promising areas for translational research.