Abstract
Biallelic germline mutations of MUTYH—a gene encoding a base excision repair protein—are associated with an increased susceptibility of colorectal cancer. Whether monoallelic MUTYH mutations also increase cancer risk is not yet clear, although there is some evidence suggesting a slight increase of risk. As the MUTYH protein interacts with the mismatch repair (MMR) system, we hypothesised that the combination of a monoallelic MUTYH mutation with an MMR gene mutation increases cancer risk. We therefore investigated the prevalence of monoallelic MUTYH mutations in carriers of a germline MMR mutation: 40 carriers of a truncating mutation (group I) and 36 of a missense mutation (group II). These patients had been diagnosed with either colorectal or endometrial cancer. We compared their MUTYH mutation frequencies with those observed in a group of 134 Dutch colorectal and endometrial cancer patients without an MMR gene mutation (0.7%) and those reported for Caucasian controls (1.5%). In group I one monoallelic MUTYH mutation was found (2.5%). In group II five monoallelic germline MUTYH mutations were found (14%), four of them in MSH6 missense mutation carriers (20%). Of all patients with an MMR gene mutation, only those with a missense mutation showed a significantly higher frequency of (monoallelic) MUTYH mutations than the Dutch cancer patients without MMR gene mutations (P=0.002) and the published controls (P=0.001). These results warrant further study to test the hypothesis of mutations in MMR genes (in particular MSH6) and MUTYH acting together to increase cancer risk.
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Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank Maran Olderode-Berends for the patient inclusion and Ying Wu, Neeltje Arts and Martijn Schliekelmann for the mutation detection on the mismatch repair genes. This work was supported by grants no. RUG 1997–1544 and RUG 2002–2678 of the Dutch Cancer Society.
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Niessen, R.C., Sijmons, R.H., Ou, J. et al. MUTYH and the mismatch repair system: partners in crime?. Hum Genet 119, 206–211 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00439-005-0118-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00439-005-0118-5