Familial risks in nervous system tumours: joint Nordic study

Familial nervous system cancers are rare and limited data on familial aspects are available particularly on site-specific tumours.

Data from five Nordic countries were used to analyse familial risks of nervous system tumours. Standardised incidence ratios (SIRs) were calculated for offspring of affected relatives compared with offspring of non-affected relatives.

The total number of patients with nervous system tumour was 63 307, of whom 32 347 belonged to the offspring generation. Of 851 familial patients (2.6%) in the offspring generation, 42 (4.7%) belonged to the families of a parent and at least two siblings affected. The SIR of brain tumours was 1.7 in offspring of affected parents; it was 2.0 in siblings and 9.4 in families with a parent and sibling affected. For spinal tumours, the SIRs were much higher for offspring of early onset tumours, 14.0 for offspring of affected parents and 22.7 for siblings. The SIRs for peripheral nerve tumours were 16.3 in offspring of affected parents, 27.7 in siblings and 943.9 in multiplex families.

The results of this population-based study on medically diagnosed tumours show site-, proband- and age-specific risks for familial tumours, with implications for clinical genetic counselling and identification of the underlying genes.