Prognostic implications of cancer susceptibility genes: any news?

Recent advances in our understanding of the genetic basis of several inherited predispositions to cancer have raised the possibility that there may be differences in prognosis between patients harbouring genetic susceptibilities to cancer and persons presenting with sporadic disease. The two best studied models of inherited susceptibilities to cancer will be considered, those of colorectal cancer and familial breast cancer. Familial colorectal cancer can be subdivided into essentially two groups: familial adenomatous polyposis and hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer. Familial breast cancer can be subdivided into three groups: those that can be accounted for by mutations in the breast cancer susceptibility gene BRCA 1, families harbouring mutations in BRCA 2 and families where neither BRCA 1 nor BRCA 2 appear to be involved. In this chapter several aspects of these inherited cancer predispositions will be discussed and compared with their equivalent sporadic disease counterparts.