Germline DNA from 1054 BRCA-mutation-negative Hispanic women with hereditary BC (BC diagnosed at age <51 years, bilateral BC, breast and ovarian cancer, or BC diagnosed at ages 51-70 years with ≥2 first-degree or second-degree relatives who had BC diagnosed at age <70 years), 312 local controls, and 887 multiethnic cohort controls was sequenced and analyzed for 12 known and suspected, high-penetrance and moderate-penetrance cancer susceptibility genes (ataxia telangiectasia mutated [ATM], breast cancer 1 interacting protein C-terminal helicase 1 [BRIP1], cadherin 1 [CDH1], checkpoint kinase 2 [CHEK2], nibrin [NBN], neurofibromatosis type 1 [NF1], partner and localizer of BRCA2 [PALB2], phosphatase and tensin homolog [PTEN], RAD51 paralog 3 [RAD51C], RAD51D, serine/threonine kinase 11 [STK11], and TP53).
Heterozygous mutations in the PALB2 hereditary breast cancer predisposition gene impact on the three-dimensional nuclear organization of patient-derived cell lines.
The youngest affected woman, not known to carry a mutation in BRCA1 or BRCA2, from 747 multiple-case breast cancer families participating in kConFab were selected for PALB2 mutation screening.
Our findings establish L35P as the first pathogenic missense mutation in PALB2 and directly demonstrate the requirement of the PALB2-BRCA1 interaction for breast cancer suppression.
We evaluated the contribution of PALB2 germline mutations in 122 Asian women with breast cancer, all of whom had significant family history of breast and other cancers.
Moreover, among the genes recently associated with an increased susceptibility to breast cancer, four are Fanconi Anemia (FA) genes: FANCD1/BRCA2, FANCJ/BACH1/BRIP1, FANCN/PALB2 and FANCO/RAD51C.
PVs were identified in 9.3% of women tested; 51.5% of PVs were identified in genes other than breast cancer 1 (BRCA1) and BRCA2, including checkpoint kinase 2 (CHEK2) (11.7%), ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM; ATM serine/threonine kinase) (9.7%), and partner and localizer of BRCA2 (PALB2) (9.3%).