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Prevalence and oncologic outcomes of BRCA 1/2 mutations in unselected triple-negative breast cancer patients in Korea

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Abstract

Purpose

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) accounts for 10–20% of all diagnosed BCs and it is enriched in BRCA1 mutation. Guidelines for Western countries suggest that BRCA 1/2 genetic testing should be done for patients with TNBC diagnosed less than 60 years, but there is lack of evidence supporting genetic testing in Asian populations. We determined the prevalence of germline BRCA 1/2 mutations among unselected Korean patients with TNBC and analyzed oncologic outcomes.

Methods

From among 1628 women with TNBC who underwent surgery at Samsung Medical Center (SMC) between Jul 2008 and Jan 2016, 999 samples were available in the SMC biobank for testing germline BRCA 1/2 mutations using next-generation DNA sequencing.

Results

Overall, 131 Korean patients (13.1%) had BRCA 1/2 mutations: 97 (9.7%) were in BRCA 1, and 35 (3.5%) were in BRCA 2. One patient had both BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 mutations. Overall, 68 distinct pathologic or likely pathogenic variants (43 BRCA1 and 25 BRCA2) were found. Among those diagnosed at ≤ 60 years, the prevalence of BRCA 1/2 mutation was 14.5%. The mean age of diagnosis of BRCA1/2 mutation carriers was significantly younger than that of non-carriers (45.6 vs. 50.1 years, p < 0.0001). The median follow-up duration was 53.6 months. There were no significant differences in disease-free survival, overall survival, or breast cancer-specific survival (p = 0.799, 0.092, and 0.124, respectively) between BRCA 1/2 carriers and non-carriers, although BRCA 1/2 carriers showed significantly worse contralateral breast cancer-free survival (p < 0.0001) than non-carriers.

Conclusion

In unselected TNBC patients, we found BRCA 1/2 mutations in 13.1% of overall patients and 14.5% of patients ≤ 60 years. We suggest that Korean women with TNBC diagnosed at ≤ 60 years should be tested for BRCA1/2 mutation.

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Funding

The sequencing has been supported by Macrogen Inc. This research was supported by a grant from the Korea Health Technology R&D Project through the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI), funded by the Ministry of Health & Welfare, Republic of Korea (HI14C3418); and by a National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean government (MSIP) (2016R1A5A2945889). We thank all investigators of the KOHBRA study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Breast Surgery, Department of Surgery, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea

    Jai Min Ryu, Hee Jun Choi, Isaac Kim, Seok Jin Nam, Seok Won Kim, Jonghan Yu, Se Kyung Lee & Jeong Eon Lee

  2. Department of Radiation Oncology, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea

    Doo Ho Choi

  3. Division of Hematology-Oncology, Department of Medicine, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea

    Yeon Hee Park

  4. Department of Laboratory Medicine and Genetics, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea

    Jong-Won Kim

  5. Gong Wu Genomic Medicine Institute, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Bundang-Gu, Seongnam-Si, South Korea

    Jeong-sun Seo

  6. Macrogen Inc, Seoul, South Korea

    Jeong-sun Seo & Jung-Hoon Park

  7. Department of Surgery, The Breast Care Center, Daerim St. Mary’s Hospital, Seoul, South Korea

    Sung-Won Kim

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  1. Jai Min Ryu
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Korean Hereditary Breast Cancer Study Group

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Jeong Eon Lee or Sung-Won Kim.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Ethical approval

This study adhered to the ethical tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by the Institutional Review Board of SMC in Seoul, Korea (IRB number: 2017-06-130).

Informed consent

The need for informed consent was waived because of the low risk posed by this investigation.

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Ryu, J.M., Choi, H.J., Kim, I. et al. Prevalence and oncologic outcomes of BRCA 1/2 mutations in unselected triple-negative breast cancer patients in Korea. Breast Cancer Res Treat 173, 385–395 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-018-5015-4

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