Analysis of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes in sporadic meningiomas

Several lines of evidence suggest a relationship between the occurrence of meningiomas and that of breast carcinomas: Both occur more frequently in women than in men, and a higher incidence of meningiomas has been observed in patients with a history of breast carcinoma. Both tumor types also express receptors that are associated with a proliferative response to progesterone, estrogen, and androgen hormones. Despite this clinical evidence, no genetic links between the two tumor types have been found. The breast carcinoma genes BRCA1 and BRCA2 have been linked to familial and sporadic forms of breast cancer and ovarian cancer, providing an opportunity to test this clinical observation. We conducted studies to detect alterations of the BRCA genes in meningiomas. Evaluation of 60 sporadic meningiomas with a panel of eight microsatellite and two restriction fragment length polymorphism markers at the locations of BRCA1 and BRCA2 demonstrated no loss of heterozygosity. Microsatellite instability was detected for one meningioma at two markers close to the BRCA2 locus. Northern blot analysis did not reveal any differences in mRNA expression of meningiomas compared to control tissues. These results suggest that alterations of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes are not common pathogenetic events in the development of sporadic meningiomas.