BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations in a sample of breast and ovarian cancer families from the Colombian pacific

INTRODUCTION: Breast cancer is the most common neoplasia of women from all over the world especially women from Colombia. 5%­10% of all cases are caused by hereditary factors, 25% of those cases have mutations in the BRCA1/BRCA2 genes. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to identify the mutations associated with the risk of familial breast and/or ovarian cancer in a population of Colombian pacific. METHODS: 58 high-risk breast and/or ovarian cancer families and 20 controls were screened for germline mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2, by Single Strand Conformation Polymorphism (SSCP) and sequencing. RESULTS: Four families (6.9%) were found to carry BRCA1 mutations and eight families (13.8%) had mutations in BRCA2. In BRCA1, we found three Variants of Uncertain Significance (VUS), of which we concluded, using in silico tools, that c.81­12C>G and c.3119G>A (p.Ser1040Asn) are probably deleterious, and c.3083G>A (p.Arg1028His) is probably neutral. In BRCA2, we found three variants of uncertain significance: two were previously described and one novel mutation. Using in silico analysis, we concluded that c.865A>G (p.Asn289Asp) and c.6427T>C (p.Ser2143Pro) are probably deleterious and c.125A>G (p.Tyr42Cys) is probably neutral. Only one of them has previously been reported in Colombia. We also identified 13 polymorphisms (4 in BRCA1 and 9 in BRCA2), two of them are associated with a moderate increase in breast cancer risk (BRCA2 c.1114A>C and c.8755­66T>C). CONCLUSION: According to our results, the Colombian pacific population presents diverse mutational spectrum for BRCA genes that differs from the findings in other regions in the country.