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. 2022 Jan;24(1):119-129.
doi: 10.1016/j.gim.2021.08.016. Epub 2021 Nov 30.

Risks of breast and ovarian cancer for women harboring pathogenic missense variants in BRCA1 and BRCA2 compared with those harboring protein truncating variants

Affiliations

Risks of breast and ovarian cancer for women harboring pathogenic missense variants in BRCA1 and BRCA2 compared with those harboring protein truncating variants

Hongyan Li et al. Genet Med. 2022 Jan.

Erratum in

  • Risks of breast and ovarian cancer for women harboring pathogenic missense variants in BRCA1 and BRCA2 compared with those harboring protein truncating variants.
    Li H, Engel C, Hoya M, Peterlongo P, Yannoukakos D, Livraghi L, Radice P, Thomassen M, Hansen TVO, Gerdes AM, Nielsen HR, Caputo SM, Zambelli A, Borg A, Solano A, Thomas A, Parsons MT, Antoniou AC, Leslie G, Yang X, Chenevix-Trench G, Caldes T, Kwong A, Pedersen IS, Lautrup CK, John EM, Terry MB, Hopper JL, Southey MC, Andrulis IL, Tischkowitz M, Janavicius R, Boonen SE, Kroeldrup L, Varesco L, Hamann U, Vega A, Palmero EI, Garber J, Montagna M, Van Asperen CJ, Foretova L, Greene MH, Selkirk T, Moller P, Toland AE, Domchek SM, James PA, Thorne H, Eccles DM, Nielsen SM, Manoukian S, Pasini B, Caligo MA, Lazaro C, Kirk J, Wappenschmidt B, Spurdle AB, Couch FJ, Schmutzler R, Goldgar DE; ENIGMA Consortium and CIMBA Consortium. Li H, et al. Genet Med. 2022 Oct;24(10):2208. doi: 10.1016/j.gim.2022.08.005. Genet Med. 2022. PMID: 36205748 No abstract available.

Abstract

Purpose: Germline genetic testing for BRCA1 and BRCA2 variants has been a part of clinical practice for >2 decades. However, no studies have compared the cancer risks associated with missense pathogenic variants (PVs) with those associated with protein truncating (PTC) variants.

Methods: We collected 582 informative pedigrees segregating 1 of 28 missense PVs in BRCA1 and 153 pedigrees segregating 1 of 12 missense PVs in BRCA2. We analyzed 324 pedigrees with PTC variants in BRCA1 and 214 pedigrees with PTC variants in BRCA2. Cancer risks were estimated using modified segregation analysis.

Results: Estimated breast cancer risks were markedly lower for women aged >50 years carrying BRCA1 missense PVs than for the women carrying BRCA1 PTC variants (hazard ratio [HR] = 3.9 [2.4-6.2] for PVs vs 12.8 [5.7-28.7] for PTC variants; P = .01), particularly for missense PVs in the BRCA1 C-terminal domain (HR = 2.8 [1.4-5.6]; P = .005). In case of BRCA2, for women aged >50 years, the HR was 3.9 (2.0-7.2) for those heterozygous for missense PVs compared with 7.0 (3.3-14.7) for those harboring PTC variants. BRCA1 p.[Cys64Arg] and BRCA2 p.[Trp2626Cys] were associated with particularly low risks of breast cancer compared with other PVs.

Conclusion: These results have important implications for the counseling of at-risk women who harbor missense PVs in the BRCA1/2 genes.

Keywords: BRCA1; BRCA2; Cancer risks; Missense variants.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest F.J.C. has received consulting fees from Astrazeneca. A.S. has received consulting fees from Pfizer and Astra Zeneca. T.V.O.H. has received honoraria from Pfizer. All other authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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