Familial occurrence of schwannomas and malignant rhabdoid tumour associated with a duplication in SMARCB1
- 1ARUP Laboratories and Department of Pathology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
- 2Intermountain Healthcare Budge Clinic, Logan, Utah, USA
- 3Department of Pathology, Primary Children’s Medical Center and University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
- 4Department of Pediatrics, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
- 5Division of Medical Genetics, Department of Pediatrics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
- 6Intermountain Healthcare Clinical Genetics Institute, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
- Dr J J Swensen, ARUP Laboratories, 500 Chipeta Way, Salt Lake City, Utah 84108, USA; jeffrey.swensen{at}aruplab.com
- Received 30 April 2008
- Revised 14 August 2008
- Accepted 22 August 2008
Abstract
Background: The role of germline and somatic SMARCB1 gene mutations in malignant rhabdoid tumour (MRT) predisposition is well known. Germline SMARCB1 mutations have also recently been identified in a subset of individuals with schwannomatosis. Surprisingly, MRT predisposition and schwannomatosis have never been reported to co-occur in a family. The correlation between genotype and phenotype for mutations in SMARCB1 has not been determined.
Results: We have identified a germline 2631 bp duplication that includes exon 6 of SMARCB1 in a unique family with a four generation history of MRT predisposition and schwannomatosis. This duplication segregates with disease in individuals affected with both conditions, linking MRT predisposition and schwannomatosis as components of the same syndrome in this family.
Conclusion: The unique combination of tumours that result from the duplication described in this report may provide important clues about the mechanisms that influence the phenotype associated with a given SMARCB1 mutation.
Footnotes
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Funding: This work was supported in part by a grant from the NIH (CA46274) to JAB.
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Competing interests: None.
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Ethics approval: The University of Utah Clinical Genetics Research Program was approved by the University of Utah Institutional Review Board
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Patient consent: Obtained.
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CMC’s present affiliation: Department of Pathology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
