Alteration of DNA mismatch repair capacity underlying the co-occurrence of non-small-cell lung cancer and nonmedullary thyroid cancer

Both non-small-cell lung cancer cases in never-smokers and nonmedullary thyroid cancer cases have been increasing in developed countries. Some studies have shown an excess of co-occurrence of non-small-cell lung cancer and nonmedullary thyroid cancer. We aimed to clarify the underlying genetic factors that contribute to the occurrence of these two malignancies. We performed germline exome sequencing in a cohort of 9 patients with the two malignancies. In terms of candidate genes, we performed target resequencing, immunohistochemistry, and microsatellite instability testing on another cohort. Two rare missense heterozygous variants in MSH6 were identified and verified by Sanger sequencing. One available tumour specimen showed heterogeneous MSH6 status in immunohistochemistry. Further exploration with different cohorts (a total of 8 patients with the two malignancies) demonstrated that 2 out of 8 patients had a germline missense or promotor variant of MLH1 and four out of 10 tumour specimens revealed heterogeneous immunohistochemistry staining in any of the four mismatch repair proteins: MLH1, PMS2, MSH2 and MSH6. Although our cohort showed a different disease profile than Lynch syndrome, this study suggests causal roles of impaired DNA mismatch repair capacity in non-small-cell lung cancer and nonmedullary thyroid cancer.