CHEK2 is not a Li-Fraumeni syndrome gene: time to update public resources

Abstract

The gene-disease relationship for CHEK2 remains listed as 'Li-Fraumeni syndrome 2' in public resources such as OMIM and MONDO, despite published evidence to the contrary, causing frustration among Li-Fraumeni syndrome (LFS) clinical experts. Here, we compared personal cancer characteristics of 2095 CHEK2 and 248 TP53 pathogenic variant carriers undergoing multigene panel testing at Ambry Genetics against 15 135 individuals with no known pathogenic variant. Our results from a within-cohort logistic regression approach highlight obvious differences between clinical presentation of TP53 and CHEK2 pathogenic variant carriers, with no evidence of CHEK2 being associated with any of the TP53-related core LFS cancers. These findings emphasise the need to replace 'Li-Fraumeni syndrome 2' as the CHEK2-associated disease name, thereby limiting potential confusion.

Keywords: Genetic Predisposition to Disease; Genetic Variation; Genetics; Germline Mutation; Human Genetics.