[Testing of mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes in tumor tissues - possibilities and limitations]

Development of targeted cancer therapy is accompanied by a search for markers allowing prediction of response to the particular treatment. Recently, the interest is focused, among other neoplasms, also on the therapy of ovarian cancer using new inhibitors of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) proteins, nuclear enzymes involved in the repair of single-stranded DNA breaks. The greatest benefit from the administration of PARP inhibitors have patients with a deleterious or potentially deleterious germ-line or somatic mutation of BRCA1 or BRCA2, two genes responsible for repair of double stranded DNA breaks. There has been described a wide spectrum of mutations of BRCA 1/2, from point substitutions to large deletions, including sometimes even several exons of the gene.Unlike the testing of germ-line mutations provided for many years by the medical geneticists, somatic mutations in the tumor tissue have not been routinely tested so far. Detection of BRCA1/2 mutations in the tumor is significantly different from testing of germ-line mutations. In comparison with the analysis of DNA isolated from blood samples, testing of DNA isolated from the FFPE tissue encounters challenges based on heterogeneous representation of tumor cells in the tissue samples, on the presence of multiple neoplastic clones and on the infiltration of tissue by the non-neoplastic elements, as well as difficulties caused by variable proportion of apoptotic and necrotic cells deteriorating the overall quality of isolated DNA.Regarding the testing methods, NGS appears to be the optimal choice because of its complexity, speed of implementation into routine diagnostics as well as sensitivity for detection of a BRCA 1/2 mutations. When introduced into everyday laboratory practice, the functioning quality control system is of utmost importance. Provided there is a high probability of detection of the so far unreported variations in BRCA 1/2 genes, an introduction of a shared database of somatic variants diagnosed in the Czech Republic would be of enormous benefit.