CHEK2 contribution to hereditary breast cancer in non-BRCA families

Mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes are responsible for only a part of hereditary breast cancer (HBC). The origins of "non-BRCA" HBC in families may be attributed in part to rare mutations in genes conferring moderate risk, such as CHEK2, which encodes for an upstream regulator of BRCA1. Previous studies have demonstrated an association between CHEK2 founder mutations and non-BRCA HBC. However, very few data on the entire coding sequence of this gene are available.

We investigated the contribution of CHEK2 mutations to non-BRCA HBC by direct sequencing of its whole coding sequence in 507 non-BRCA HBC cases and 513 controls.

We observed 16 mutations in cases and 4 in controls, including 9 missense variants of uncertain consequence. Using both in silico tools and an in vitro kinase activity test, the majority of the variants were found likely to be deleterious for protein function. One variant present in both cases and controls was proposed to be neutral. Removing this variant from the pool of potentially deleterious variants gave a mutation frequency of 1.48% for cases and 0.29% for controls (P = 0.0040). The odds ratio of breast cancer in the presence of a deleterious CHEK2 mutation was 5.18.

Our work indicates that a variety of deleterious CHEK2 alleles make an appreciable contribution to breast cancer susceptibility, and their identification could help in the clinical management of patients carrying a CHEK2 mutation.