Activating PTPN11 mutations play a minor role in pediatric and adult solid tumors

The PTPN11 gene encodes SHP-2, a widely expressed cytoplasmic protein tyrosine phosphatase functioning as a signaling transducer. Germ-line PTPN11 mutations cause Noonan syndrome (NS), a developmental disorder characterized by an increased risk of malignancies. Recently, a novel class of activating mutations in PTPN11 has been documented as a somatic event in a heterogeneous group of leukemias. Because of the relatively higher prevalence of certain solid tumors in children with NS and the positive modulatory function of SHP-2 in RAS signaling, a wider role for activating PTPN11 mutations in cancer has been hypothesized. Here, we screened a number of solid tumors, including those documented in NS or in which deregulated RAS signaling occurs at significant frequency, for PTPN11 mutations. No disease-associated mutation was identified in rhabdomyosarcoma (n = 13), neuroblastoma (n = 32), melanoma (n = 50), thyroid (n = 85), and colon (n = 48) tumors; a novel missense change, promoting an increased basal phosphatase activity of SHP-2, was observed in one glioma specimen. Our data document that deregulated SHP-2 function does not represent a major molecular event in pediatric and adult tumors, further supporting our previous evidence indicating that the oncogenic role of PTPN11 mutations is cell-context specific.