A Comparative Study of the Molecular Characteristics of Familial Gliomas and Other Cancers.
BACKGROUND
Familial cancers are those that co-occur among first-degree relatives without showing Mendelian patterns of inheritance.


METHODS
In this analysis, we compare the genomic characteristics of familial and sporadic cancers, with a focus on low-grade gliomas (LGGs) using sequence and expression data from the Cancer Genome Atlas.


RESULTS
Familial cancers show similar genomic and molecular biomarker profiles to sporadic cancers, consistent with the similarity in their clinical features. There are no statistically significant differences among somatic mutation, copy number variant, or gene expression patterns between familial and sporadic cancers; methylation profiles are the only class of molecular data to show significant differences.


CONCLUSIONS
Familial cancers are likely driven by multiple, individually weak contributions to familiality (i.e. large numbers of alleles and/or shared environmental risks). Consequently, these risk factors tend to be obscured by stronger confounding variables such as clinical or molecular variation among cancer subtypes.
NeuroTexas Institute Research Foundation, St. David's Medical Center, Austin, Texas, TX, U.S.A.
Jie
J
Lu
NeuroTexas Institute Research Foundation, St. David's Medical Center, Austin, Texas, TX, U.S.A.
Mark G
MG
Burnett
NeuroTexas Institute Research Foundation, St. David's Medical Center, Austin, Texas, TX, U.S.A. shpak.max@gmail.com.|Center for Systems and Synthetic Biology, University of Texas, Austin, Texas, TX, U.S.A.|Fresh Pond Research Institute, Cambridge, MA, U.S.A.
Max
M
Shpak
D000483:Alleles; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics*; D056915:DNA Copy Number Variations / Q000235:genetics*; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D018095:Germ-Line Mutation / Q000235:genetics; D005910:Glioma / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D060787:Neoplasm Grading; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics*; D012307:Risk Factors
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins
Familial cancer; cancer risk alleles; gene expression; gene methylation; low-grade glioma