Open AccessKidney cancer characteristics and genotype-phenotype-correlations in Birt-Hogg-Dubé syndrome
Author(s) -
Elke Sattler,
Marlene Reithmair,
Ortrud K. Steinlein
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0209504
Subject(s) - birt–hogg–dubé syndrome , folliculin , oncocytoma , kidney cancer , chromophobe cell , medicine , pathology , kidney , cancer , genotype , biology , clear cell , pneumothorax , renal cell carcinoma , genetics , surgery , gene
Birt-Hogg-Dubé syndrome (BHDS) is a genetic tumor syndrome characterized by lung cysts, pneumothorax, fibrofolliculomas and renal cell cancer. The diagnosis of BHDS is usually considered if kidney cancer occurs before age 50 years, is multifocal and/or bilateral or of the oncocytoma/hybrid oncocytoma-chromophobe type. Using a sample of 50 BHDS families with a total of 178 patients we analyzed how many kidney cancer patients fulfilled one or more of these criteria. Furthermore, we addressed the question if genotype-phenotype-correlations exist that can be used for risk stratification. Renal cell cancer occurred in 34/178 (19.1%) patients, and the reported male bias was not observed. Furthermore, most kidney malignancies occurred after the age of 50 years. Thus, the majority of tumors did not show the typical hallmarks of BHDS. A below-average tumor frequency (17.2%) was observed for the known mutational hotspot c.1285delC/dupC that was the cause of BHDS in 24% of families. Unexpected was the high tumor frequency (66.7%) associated with mutation c.887C>G within a single family, a finding that merits further exploration.