N-acetyltransferase (NAT) 2 acetylator status and age of onset in patients with hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC).

N-acetyltransferase (NAT) 2 is an essential polymorphic enzyme involved in the metabolism of various xenobiotics, including potential carcinogens. The individual differences in the NAT2 metabolic capacity are caused by allelic variants of the NAT2 gene which are determined by a pattern of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) resulting in slow (SA), intermediate (IA) or rapid acetylator (RA) phenotypes. Highly penetrant germline mutations in mismatch repair (MMR) genes are the cause of the disease in hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC). There is no strict correlation between the type of germline mutation in MMR genes and the HNPCC phenotype, but age of tumor onset (AO) in HNPCC has been associated at least in part with different variants in apoptosis-related genes. To clarify the potential modifying role of the NAT2 acetylator status in HNPCC, we performed a multicenter study in 226 individuals with colorectal cancer carrying exclusively pathogenic germline mutations in MSH2 or MLH1. We did not observe any significant difference in the NAT2 acetylator status frequency between HNPCC patients and 107 healthy controls (P=0.156), and between MLH1 and MSH2 mutation carriers (P=0.198). Multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that male patients had a significantly increased risk to develop CRC compared to females during any interval (P=0.043), while the NAT2 acetylator status (P=0.447) and the mutated gene (MLH1 or MSH2) (P=0.236) were not risk factors for AO. The median AO in HNPCC patients was 39 years in patients with RA as well as with SA status (P=0.347). In MLH1 mutation carriers, the median AO was 38 years in RA and 36 years in SA status patients (P=0.901), whereas in MSH2 mutation carriers, the median AO was 39 years in RA and 42 years in SA status patients (P=0.163). Log-rank test revealed a significantly lower age of CRC onset in male compared to female HNPCC patients (P=0.0442). These data do not support the hypothesis that the NAT2 acetylatorship acts as a modifying factor on AO in HNPCC-associated CRC.