Exome DNA sequencing of blood samples from a Li-Fraumeni family with a TP53 germline mutation (codon 236 deletion) and multiple nervous system tumors revealed additional germline mutations.
To determine the relevance of defective MGMT function due to aberrant methylation in relation to the presence of TP53 mutations, we studied 469 nervous system tumors (including all major histological subtypes) for MGMT promoter methylation and TP53 mutations at exons 5-8.
Except for a mutation in one of seven (14%) meningeal hemangiopericytomas (codon 238; TGT-->TTT, Cys-->Phe), no mutations were observed in exons 5-8 of the p53 gene in any of the following tumors of the nervous system and its coverings: 13 schwannomas, 12 central neurocytomas, 22 meningiomas, 10 choroid plexus papillomas and carcinomas, and 30 neuroblastomas of the sympathetic nervous system.
Alterations in the ARF tumor suppressor protein (also known as p14ARF in humans and p19ARF in the mouse) occur frequently in cancer and are associated with susceptibility to melanoma, pancreatic cancer and nervous system tumors.
A genetic syndrome of cutaneous malignant melanoma and nervous system tumors recently has been characterized and shown to be linked to the INK4 locus in the 9p21 region.