Frontiers in Genetics (Apr 2022)

Unraveling the Genetic Architecture of Hepatoblastoma Risk: Birth Defects and Increased Burden of Germline Damaging Variants in Gastrointestinal/Renal Cancer Predisposition and DNA Repair Genes

  • Talita Aguiar,
  • Talita Aguiar,
  • Talita Aguiar,
  • Anne Teixeira,
  • Anne Teixeira,
  • Marília O. Scliar,
  • Juliana Sobral de Barros,
  • Juliana Sobral de Barros,
  • Renan B. Lemes,
  • Renan B. Lemes,
  • Silvia Souza,
  • Silvia Souza,
  • Giovanna Tolezano,
  • Giovanna Tolezano,
  • Fernanda Santos,
  • Israel Tojal,
  • Monica Cypriano,
  • Silvia Regina Caminada de Toledo,
  • Eugênia Valadares,
  • Raquel Borges Pinto,
  • Osvaldo Afonso Pinto Artigalas,
  • Joaquim Caetano de Aguirre Neto,
  • Estela Novak,
  • Estela Novak,
  • Lilian Maria Cristofani,
  • Sofia M. Miura Sugayama,
  • Vicente Odone,
  • Isabela Werneck Cunha,
  • Cecilia Maria Lima da Costa,
  • Carla Rosenberg,
  • Carla Rosenberg,
  • Ana Krepischi,
  • Ana Krepischi

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2022.858396
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 13

Abstract

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The ultrarare hepatoblastoma (HB) is the most common pediatric liver cancer. HB risk is related to a few rare syndromes, and the molecular bases remain elusive for most cases. We investigated the burden of rare damaging germline variants in 30 Brazilian patients with HB and the presence of additional clinical signs. A high frequency of prematurity (20%) and birth defects (37%), especially craniofacial (17%, including craniosynostosis) and kidney (7%) anomalies, was observed. Putative pathogenic or likely pathogenic monoallelic germline variants mapped to 10 cancer predisposition genes (CPGs: APC, CHEK2, DROSHA, ERCC5, FAH, MSH2, MUTYH, RPS19, TGFBR2 and VHL) were detected in 33% of the patients, only 40% of them with a family history of cancer. These findings showed a predominance of CPGs with a known link to gastrointestinal/colorectal and renal cancer risk. A remarkable feature was an enrichment of rare damaging variants affecting different classes of DNA repair genes, particularly those known as Fanconi anemia genes. Moreover, several potentially deleterious variants mapped to genes impacting liver functions were disclosed. To our knowledge, this is the largest assessment of rare germline variants in HB patients to date, contributing to elucidate the genetic architecture of HB risk.

Keywords