Generation or birth cohort effect on cancer risk in Li-Fraumeni syndrome

Abstract

Genetic anticipation is the increased incidence, earlier onset, or increased severity of a disease in successive generations. Before the biological basis of anticipation had been demonstrated, the phenomenon was thought to be due to sampling bias, epigenetic effects, gene conversion, or recombinant events. Since then, the biologic basis for anticipation in a number of neurodegenerative disorders has been shown to be attributable to trinucleotide repeat instability, with expansion of repeats clearly correlated with an earlier age of onset. Recently, telomere shortening has been suggested as the mechanism for anticipation in the autosomal dominant form of dyskeratosis congenita, attributable to mutations in the TERC gene, leading to dysfunctional telomeres (Vulliamy et al. 2004). However, the pattern of anticipation has been observed in other disorders, including cancers, for which no genetic defect has been identified. In this study, we assess the apparent generation effect on cancer incidence in ten extended families with P53 germline mutation, identified through probands diagnosed with childhood sarcoma. The probands were from two sets of systematically ascertained sarcoma patients treated at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center between 1944 and 1982. From those overall studies, we have identified ten kindreds having germline P53 mutations in more than one generation. We compared the cancer incidence in members of successive generations of these families with P53 mutations (carriers) and with no P53 mutations (noncarriers). In carriers, cancer incidence increased in succeeding generations; there was no evidence for this effect in noncarriers; however, the noncarrier population was too small to rule it out. The apparent lack of increase in incidence in noncarriers argues against a cohort effect explaining the increase in carriers.