Publisher Correction: CNspector: a web-based tool for visualisation and clinical diagnosis of copy number variation from next generation sequencing.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

CNspector: a web-based tool for visualisation and clinical diagnosis of copy number variation from next generation sequencing.

Next Generation Sequencing is now routinely used in the practice of diagnostic pathology to detect clinically relevant somatic and germline sequence variations in patient samples. However, clinical assessment of copy number variations (CNVs) and large-scale structural variations (SVs) is still challenging. While tools exist to estimate both, their results are typically presented separately in tables or static plots which can be difficult to read and are unable to show the context needed for clinical interpretation and reporting. We have addressed this problem with CNspector, a multi-scale interactive browser that shows CNVs in the context of other relevant genomic features to enable fast and effective clinical reporting. We illustrate the utility of CNspector at different genomic scales across a variety of sample types in a range of case studies. We show how CNspector can be used for diagnosis and reporting of exon-level deletions, focal gene-level amplifications, chromosome and chromosome arm level amplifications/deletions and in complex genomic rearrangements. CNspector is a web-based clinical variant browser tailored to the clinical application of next generation sequencing for CNV assessment. We have demonstrated the utility of this interactive software in typical applications across a range of tissue types and disease contexts encountered in the context of diagnostic pathology. CNspector is written in R and the source code is available for download under the GPL3 Licence from https://github.com/PapenfussLab/CNspector . A server running CNspector loaded with the figures from this paper can be accessed at https://shiny.wehi.edu.au/jmarkham/CNspector/index.html .

Novel sequence variants and a high frequency of recurrent polymorphisms in BRCA1 gene in Sri Lankan breast cancer patients and at risk individuals.

BACKGROUND: Breast Cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among Sri Lankan women. Germline mutations in the susceptibility genes BRCA1 and BRCA2 in hereditary breast/ovarian cancer, though low in prevalence, are highly penetrant and show geographical variations. There have been only a few reports from Asia on mutations in BRCA1/2 genes and none from Sri Lanka. METHODS: A total of 130 patients with (N = 66) and without (N = 64) a family history of breast cancer, 70 unaffected individuals with a family history of breast cancer and 40 control subjects were analysed for BRCA1 mutations. All but exon 11 were screened by single strand conformation analysis (SSCP) and heteroduplex analysis. PCR products which showed abnormal patterns in SSCP were sequenced. Exon 11 was directly sequenced. RESULTS: Nineteen sequence variants were found in BRCA1 gene. Two novel deleterious frame-shift mutations; c.3086delT/exon11 (in one patient) and c.5404delG/exon21 (in one patient and two of her family members) were identified. A possibly pathogenic novel missense mutation (c.856T>G/exon 11) and three novel intronic variants (IVS7+36C>T, IVS7+41C>T, IVS7+49del15) were characterised. Ten previously reported common polymorphisms and three previously reported intronic variants were also observed. CONCLUSION: After screening of 66 patients with family history and 64 sporadic breast cancer patients, 2 deleterious mutations (c.3086delT and c.5404delG) in two families were identified and two more possibly pathogenic mutations (c.856T>G and IVS17-2A>T) in two families were identified. DATA BASE: BRCA1--Gene Bank: Accession # U14680 Version # 14680.1.

Novel sequence variants and common recurrent polymorphisms of BRCA2 in Sri Lankan breast cancer patients and a family with BRCA1 mutations.

We previously reported BRCA1 mutations and sequence variants in Sri Lankan breast cancer patients. Mutations and sequence variants of the BRCA2 gene were studied in 149 study participants from the same cohort. There were 55 familial and 54 sporadic breast cancer patients, 20 at-risk individuals and 20 healthy controls. Direct sequencing (exon 11) and sequencing of abnormal bands after screening with single-strand conformation polymorphism (remaining exons) were used to detect mutations and sequence variants. Twenty-three sequence variants were found in the BRCA2 gene. Two novel pathogenic frame-shift additions resulting in a premature stop codon (c.2403 insA/exon 11, c.2667 insT/exon 11) were identified. Possibly pathogenic two novel missense mutations (c.1191 A>C/exon 10, c.5695 A>C/exon 11) one novel intronic variant (IVS15-21 insTT), four novel silent mutations (c.969 C>T/exon 9, c.1353 C>T/exon 10, c.2766 A>C/exon 11 and c.7452 A>G/exon 14) and one novel missense mutation (c.971 C>G/exon 9) were observed. One previously reported possibly pathogenic intronic variant (IVS81 G>C) and several previously reported silent mutations, missense mutations, and one 5' UTR polymorphism were detected. Pathogenic and possibly pathogenic mutations were more frequent in the BRCA2 gene among Sri Lankan familial breast cancer patients when compared to our previous findings for the BRCA1 gene.