CAG repeat size in Huntingtin alleles is associated with cancer prognosis.

ABSTRACT: The abnormal expansion of a ≥36 CAG unit tract in the Huntingtin gene (HTT) leads to Huntington's disease (HD), but has also been associated with cancer: the incidence of cancer is lower in HD patients than in age-matched controls, but HD-causing variants of HTT accelerate the progression of breast tumors and the development of metastases in mouse models of breast cancer. To investigate the relationship between HTT CAGs and cancer, data concerning 2407 women with BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations that predispose to breast and ovarian cancers and 431 patients with breast cancer without family histories were studied; the size of the CAG expansions on both HTT alleles was determined in each subject. The proportion of individuals carrying a CAG expansion in a pathological range for HD was 10 times more

SUBMITTER: Thion MS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4989202 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature