Infrequent germ-line mutation of the E-cadherin gene in Japanese familial gastric cancer kindreds.

ABSTRACT

Germ-line mutation of the E-cadherin gene was reported in familial gastric cancer (FGC) kindreds from New Zealand. Therefore, we analyzed all of the exons of E-cadherin by PCR-single-strand conformational polymorphism analysis in 16 patients from 14 Japanese FGC kindreds. However, no germ-line mutation was detected, suggesting that a predisposition to FGCs by E-cadherin gene mutation is infrequent in Japanese cases.