Trans-ethnic variation in germline variants of patients with renal cell carcinoma.

Prior studies of the renal cell carcinoma (RCC) germline landscape investigated predominantly patients of European ancestry. We examine the frequency of germline pathogenic and likely pathogenic (P/LP) variants in 1,829 patients with RCC from various ancestries.

Overall, P/LP variants are found in 17% of patients, among whom 10.3% harbor one or more clinically actionable variants with potential preventive or therapeutic utility. Patients of African ancestry with RCC harbor significantly more P/LP variants in FH compared to patients of non-African ancestry with RCC and African controls from the Genome Aggregation Database (gnomAD). Patients of non-African ancestry have significantly more P/LP variants in CHEK2 compared to patients of African ancestry with RCC and non-Finnish Europeans controls. Non-Africans with RCC have more actionable variants compared to Africans with RCC. This work helps understand the underlying biological differences in RCC between Africans and non-Africans and paves the way to more comprehensive genomic characterization of underrepresented populations.

Cell reports. 2021 Mar 30 [Epub]

Sarah Abou Alaiwi, Amin H Nassar, Elio Adib, Stefan M Groha, Elie W Akl, Bradley A McGregor, Edward D Esplin, Shan Yang, Kathryn Hatchell, Vincent Fusaro, Sarah Nielsen, David J Kwiatkowski, Guru P Sonpavde, Mark Pomerantz, Judy E Garber, Matthew L Freedman, Huma Q Rana, Alexander Gusev, Toni K Choueiri

Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA., Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA; Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and Genetics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA., Division of Genetics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA., Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and Genetics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA., Invitae Corporation, San Francisco, CA, USA., Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Division of Population Sciences, Division of Cancer Genetics and Prevention, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA., Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA., Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA; Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and Genetics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: .

Read an Expert Commentary by Bishoy Faltas, MD