Purpose: A growing number of sequence changes of unknown clinical significance are being identified in the BRCA1 gene. However, these variants cannot be used for identification and surveillance of at-risk individuals unless their pathogenic role can be demonstrated. The frequency of these variants makes research on this subject a relevant topic in the field of predisposition to breast and ovarian cancers. Herein, we investigate the pathogenicity of the BRCA1 p.Val1688del (c.5181_5183delGTT) variant, which recurs in our population.
Patients and methods: Recent studies have drawn attention to different strategies that, if considered singly, do not usually provide sufficient power to firmly state for or against causality, thus forcing to a re-evaluation of the literature on each specific variant. To increase the power of our study, we used a recently described strategy that integrates data from multiple independent evidences. By this approach, we analyzed data from the comprehensive study of 12 breast/ovarian cancer families carrying p.Val1688del.
Results: We succeeded in integrating five independent evidences of disease causality including segregation, tumor pathology, and evolutionary and epidemiologic data. Under this model, we obtained a final score of 349,000:1 in favor of disease causality. This result largely matches established cutoffs, and thus is readily translatable into a clear clinical message.
Conclusion: We show that p.Val1688del is a pathogenic mutation deriving from a common founder. Notably, this study alone increases by 15% the number of BRCA1-positive families in our patients' cohort, thus substantially contributing to explain many of the families wherein prediction of a BRCA1 mutation contrasted with the absence of a molecular recognizable defect.