Classification of germline variants identified in cancer predisposition genetic testing - consensus of the CZECANCA consortium.

Background: Hereditary cancer syndromes are an important subset of malignant cancers caused by pathogenic variants in one of many known cancer predisposition genes. Diagnosis of cancer predisposition is based on genetic testing using next-generation sequencing. This allows many genes to be analysed at once, increasing the number of variants identified.

The Cause of Hereditary Hearing Loss in Heterozygotes-A Comprehensive Study of the /DFNB1 Region.

Hearing loss is a genetically heterogeneous sensory defect, and the frequent causes are biallelic pathogenic variants in the gene. However, patients carrying only one heterozygous pathogenic (monoallelic) variant represent a long-lasting diagnostic problem. Interestingly, previous results showed that individuals with a heterozygous pathogenic variant are two times more prevalent among those with hearing loss compared to normal-hearing individuals.

Multigene Panel Germline Testing of 1333 Czech Patients with Ovarian Cancer.

Ovarian cancer (OC) is the deadliest gynecologic malignancy with a substantial proportion of hereditary cases and a frequent association with breast cancer (BC). Genetic testing facilitates treatment and preventive strategies reducing OC mortality in mutation carriers. However, the prevalence of germline mutations varies among populations and many rarely mutated OC predisposition genes remain to be identified.

Contribution of Massive Parallel Sequencing to Diagnosis of Hereditary Ovarian Cancer in the Czech Republic.

Background: Ovarian cancer is a disease with high mortality. Approximately 1,000 women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer in the Czech Republic annually. Women harboring a mutation in cancer-predisposing genes face an increased risk of tumor development.

Germline CHEK2 Gene Mutations in Hereditary Breast Cancer Predisposition - Mutation Types and their Biological and Clinical Relevance.

Background: Hereditary mutations in the CHEK2 gene (which encodes CHK2 kinase) contribute to a moderately increased risk of breast cancer (BC) and other cancers. Large variations in the frequency of CHEK2 mutations and the occurrence of variants of unknown clinical significance (VUS) complicate estimation of cancer risk in carriers of germline CHEK2 mutations.

Patients And Methods: We performed mutation analysis of 1,526 high-risk Czech BC patients and 3,360 Czech controls.