Inherited Forms of Cancer Assignment

Running head: INHERITED FORMS OF CANCER
Inherited forms of cancer
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INHERITED FORMS OF CANCER1
There are various forms of cancer that run in families and are inherited from one
generation to other. This is because, abnormal genes responsible for cancer can be passed
through germ line transmission and accounts for 5-10% of cancer. Mostly inherited mutations
occur in tumor suppressor genes causing family cancer syndromes. This syndrome include
the colon cancer, breast and ovarian cancer, leukemia and sarcoma (Cancer.org, 2020). The
purpose of this review is to dicuss about inherited forms of cancer.
Li-Fraumeni syndrome is triggered by a mutation in TP53 gene that is carried through
germline, this gene encodes for a tumor suppression gene P53 and regulates cell cycle. Due to
this type of inherited mutation, cancer can develop in multiple oragan systems seen specially
in younger age. It is observed that mutation carried by 50% of the population have the
probability of developing cancer before 30 years of age along with a risk in women and men
accounting to 100% and 70% respectively. These type of mutation can occur due to the
interaction between gene and environment such as radiation effect can lead to defect in the
DNA repair mechanism of these genes in mutated TP53 genes (McBride et al., 2014). Most
cancer types are associated with mutation in tumor suppressor genes. It has been found in
many studies that most common types of inherited cancer are colon and breast cancer.
However renal cell carcinoma accounts for 5-8% of kidney cancers occurring in population
reaching 75 years of age in United States. There are suggestions that 60% of patients
suffering from renal cell carcinoma have inherited form of cancer. Upon genetic testing, it
was revealed that a family history if this kidney cancer was associated with clinical
manifestations including cerebellar hemangioblastoma, leiomyomas and cutaneous
fibrofolliculomas (Shuch et al., 2014) . Patients develop renal carcinoma by an early age that
is 46 years or younger. Most of the inherited renal carcinoma syndromes are classified as
autosomal dominant inheritance. This type of cancer is manifested by various syndromes
which are useful for detection and screening of the hereditary forms in patients at an early
stage.
All cases of colorectal cancer are associated with hereditary factors and the inherited
froms are classified as polyposis syndrome and nonpolyposis syndrome. In 5-15% of cases
hereditary factors contribute to colorectal cancer. Polyposis can be further classified into
APC, MUTYH, POLE and POLD1. APC polyposis occurs due to a mutation in the APC gene
which leads to a transcriptional activation of many genes and oncogenes, and this form is a
genetic autosomal dominant syndrome. It is characterized by several colorectal adenomas at
middle and second last stage of life. MUTYH polyposis is caused by mutation of MUTYH