Whole exome sequencing suggests much of non-BRCA1/BRCA2 familial breast cancer is due to moderate and low penetrance susceptibility alleles.

The identification of the two most prevalent susceptibility genes in breast cancer, BRCA1 and BRCA2, was the beginning of a sustained effort to uncover new genes explaining the missing heritability in this disease. Today, additional high, moderate and low penetrance genes have been identified in breast cancer, such as P53, PTEN, STK11, PALB2 or ATM, globally accounting for around 35 percent of the familial cases. In the present study we used massively parallel sequencing to analyze 7 BRCA1/BRCA2 negative families, each having at least 6 affected women with breast cancer (between 6 and 10) diagnosed under the age of 60 across generations. After extensive filtering, Sanger sequencing validation and co-segregation studies, variants were prioritized through either control-population studies, including up to 750 healthy individuals, or case-control assays comprising approximately 5300 samples. As a result, a known moderate susceptibility indel variant (CHEK2 1100delC) and a catalogue of 11 rare variants presenting signs of association with breast cancer were identified. All the affected genes are involved in important cellular mechanisms like DNA repair, cell proliferation and survival or cell cycle regulation. This study highlights the need to investigate the role of rare variants in familial cancer development by means of novel high throughput analysis strategies optimized for genetically heterogeneous scenarios. Even considering the intrinsic limitations of exome resequencing studies, our findings support the hypothesis that the majority of non-BRCA1/BRCA2 breast cancer families might be explained by the action of moderate and/or low penetrance susceptibility alleles.

Genetic variants in TGFß-1 and PAI-1 as possible risk factors for cardiovascular disease after radiotherapy for breast cancer.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: It has been established that radiotherapy can increase cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. Genetic variants, which play a role in the tissue, damage response and angiogenesis regulating TGFß pathway might give us insight into the mechanisms underlying radiation-induced CVD. We examined the effects of two polymorphisms, TGFß1 29C>T and PAI-1 5G>4G, on CVD incidence. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This retrospective cohort study included 422 10-year breast cancer survivors, aged <50 years at diagnosis, treated between 1977 and 1995. We collected information on treatment, oncological follow-up, CVD, CVD risk factors and genotypes. RESULTS: During a mean follow-up of 19.4 years, 61 patients developed CVD. Internal mammary chain (IMC) irradiation, exposing a part of the heart to radiation, was associated with a hazard ratio of 2.36 (95% CI: 1.27-4.37, p=0.01) compared to no IMC irradiation. Compared to the C/C+C/T genotype, the T/T genotype of the TGFß1 polymorphism was associated with hazard ratios of 1.79 (0.99-3.26, p=0.06) and 1.74 (0.90-3.34, p=0.10) in the total and IMC-irradiated group, respectively. We found no evidence for an association between PAI-1 5G>4G and CVD risk. CONCLUSION: Our study suggests there might be an association between the TGFß1 29C>T polymorphism and CVD risk in long-term breast cancer survivors.