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The Ataxia-Telangiectasia Mutated (ATM) gene is implicated in DNA double-strand break repair. Controversies in clinical radiosensitivity remain known for monoallelic carriers of the ATM pathogenic variant (PV). An evaluation of the single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs1801516 (G-A) showed different results regarding late subcutaneous fibrosis after breast radiation therapy (RT). The main objective of this study was to evaluate acute and late toxicities in carriers of a rare ATM PV or predicted PV and in carriers of minor allele A of rs1801516 facing breast RT. Fifty women with localized breast cancer treated with adjuvant RT between 2000 and 2014 at Institut Curie were selected. Acute and late toxicities in carriers of a rare PV or predicted PV (n= 9), in noncarriers (n = 41) and in carriers of SNP rs1801516 (G-A) (n = 8), were examined. The median age at diagnosis was 53 years old and 82% of patients had an invasive ductal carcinoma and 84% were at clinical stage I-IIB. With a median follow-up of 13 years, no significant difference between carriers and noncarriers was found for acute toxicities ( p > 0.05). The same results were observed for late toxicities without an effect from the rs1801516 genotype on toxicities. No significant difference in acute or late toxicities was observed between rare ATM variant carriers and noncarriers after breast RT for localized breast cancer.

The first International Workshop of the ATM and Cancer Risk group focusing on the role of Ataxia-Telangiectasia Mutated (ATM) gene in cancer was held on December 4 and 5, 2019 at Institut Curie in Paris, France. It was motivated by the fact that germline ATM pathogenic variants have been found to be associated with different cancer types. However, due to the lack of precise age-, sex-, and site-specific risk estimates, no consensus on management guidelines for variant carriers exists, and the clinical utility of ATM variant testing is uncertain. The meeting brought together epidemiologists, geneticists, biologists and clinicians to review current knowledge and on-going challenges related to ATM and cancer risk. This report summarizes the meeting sessions content that covered the latest results in family-based and population-based studies, the importance of accurate variant classification, the effect of radiation exposures for ATM variant carriers, and the characteristics of ATM-deficient tumors. The report concludes that ATM variant carriers outside of the context of Ataxia-Telangiectasia may benefit from effective cancer risk management and therapeutic strategies and that efforts to set up large-scale studies in the international framework to achieve this goal are necessary., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.)

Background: Diagnostic ionizing radiation is a risk factor for breast cancer (BC). BC risk increases with increased dose to the chest and decreases with increased age at exposure, with possible effect modification related to familial or genetic predisposition. While chest X-rays increase the BC risk of BRCA1/2 mutation carriers compared to non-carriers, little is known for women with a hereditary predisposition to BC but who tested negative for a BRCA1 or BRCA2 (BRCA1/2) mutation., Methods: We evaluated the effect of chest X-rays from diagnostic medical procedures in a dataset composed of 1552 BC cases identified through French family cancer clinics and 1363 unrelated controls. Participants reported their history of X-ray exposures in a detailed questionnaire and were tested for 113 DNA repair genes. Logistic regression and multinomial logistic regression models were used to assess the association with BC., Results: Chest X-ray exposure doubled BC risk. A 3% increased BC risk per additional exposure was observed. Being 20 years old or younger at first exposure or being exposed before first full-term pregnancy did not seem to modify this risk. Birth after 1960 or carrying a rare likely deleterious coding variant in a DNA repair gene other than BRCA1/2 modified the effect of chest X-ray exposure., Conclusion: Ever/never chest X-ray exposure increases BC risk 2-fold regardless of age at first exposure and, by up to 5-fold when carrying 3 or more rare variants in a DNA repair gene. Further studies are needed to evaluate other DNA repair genes or variants to identify those which could modify radiation sensitivity. Identification of subpopulations that are more or less susceptible to ionizing radiation is important and potentially clinically relevant., (© 2021. The Author(s).)

Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in over 180 loci have been associated with breast cancer (BC) through genome-wide association studies involving mostly unselected population-based case-control series. Some of them modify BC risk of women carrying a BRCA1 or BRCA2 (BRCA1/2) mutation and may also explain BC risk variability in BC-prone families with no BRCA1/2 mutation. Here, we assessed the contribution of SNPs of the iCOGS array in GENESIS consisting of BC cases with no BRCA1/2 mutation and a sister with BC, and population controls. Genotyping data were available for 1281 index cases, 731 sisters with BC, 457 unaffected sisters and 1272 controls. In addition to the standard SNP-level analysis using index cases and controls, we performed pedigree-based association tests to capture transmission information in the sibships. We also performed gene- and pathway-level analyses to maximize the power to detect associations with lower-frequency SNPs or those with modest effect sizes. While SNP-level analyses identified 18 loci, gene-level analyses identified 112 genes. Furthermore, 31 Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes and 7 Atlas of Cancer Signaling Network pathways were highlighted (false discovery rate of 5%). Using results from the "index case-control" analysis, we built pathway-derived polygenic risk scores (PRS) and assessed their performance in the population-based CECILE study and in a data set composed of GENESIS-affected sisters and CECILE controls. Although these PRS had poor predictive value in the general population, they performed better than a PRS built using our SNP-level findings, and we found that the joint effect of family history and PRS needs to be considered in risk prediction models., (© 2020 The Authors. International Journal of Cancer published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of UICC.)

Pathogenic variants in BRCA1 and BRCA2 only explain the underlying genetic cause of about 10% of hereditary breast and ovarian cancer families. Because of cost-effectiveness, multigene panel testing is often performed even if the clinical utility of testing most of the genes remains questionable. The purpose of our study was to assess the contribution of rare, deleterious-predicted variants in DNA repair genes in familial breast cancer (BC) in a well-characterized and homogeneous population. We analyzed 113 DNA repair genes selected from either an exome sequencing or a candidate gene approach in the GENESIS study, which includes familial BC cases with no BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation and having a sister with BC (N = 1,207), and general population controls (N = 1,199). Sequencing data were filtered for rare loss-of-function variants (LoF) and likely deleterious missense variants (MV). We confirmed associations between LoF and MV in PALB2, ATM and CHEK2 and BC occurrence. We also identified for the first time associations between FANCI, MAST1, POLH and RTEL1 and BC susceptibility. Unlike other associated genes, carriers of an ATM LoF had a significantly higher risk of developing BC than carriers of an ATM MV (OR LoF = 17.4 vs. OR MV = 1.6; p Het = 0.002). Hence, our approach allowed us to specify BC relative risks associated with deleterious-predicted variants in PALB2, ATM and CHEK2 and to add MAST1, POLH, RTEL1 and FANCI to the list of DNA repair genes possibly involved in BC susceptibility. We also highlight that different types of variants within the same gene can lead to different risk estimates., (© 2018 The Authors. International Journal of Cancer published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of UICC.)

Background: The ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM) gene is a moderate-risk breast cancer susceptibility gene; germline loss-of-function variants are found in up to 3% of hereditary breast and ovarian cancer (HBOC) families who undergo genetic testing. So far, no clear histopathological and molecular features of breast tumours occurring in ATM deleterious variant carriers have been described, but identification of an ATM-associated tumour signature may help in patient management., Methods: To characterise hallmarks of ATM-associated tumours, we performed systematic pathology review of tumours from 21 participants from ataxia-telangiectasia families and 18 participants from HBOC families, as well as copy number profiling on a subset of 23 tumours. Morphology of ATM-associated tumours was compared with that of 599 patients with no BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations from a hospital-based series, as well as with data from The Cancer Genome Atlas. Absolute copy number and loss of heterozygosity (LOH) profiles were obtained from the OncoScan SNP array. In addition, we performed whole-genome sequencing on four tumours from ATM loss-of-function variant carriers with available frozen material., Results: We found that ATM-associated tumours belong mostly to the luminal B subtype, are tetraploid and show LOH at the ATM locus at 11q22-23. Unlike tumours in which BRCA1 or BRCA2 is inactivated, tumours arising in ATM deleterious variant carriers are not associated with increased large-scale genomic instability as measured by the large-scale state transitions signature. Losses at 13q14.11-q14.3, 17p13.2-p12, 21p11.2-p11.1 and 22q11.23 were observed. Somatic alterations at these loci may therefore represent biomarkers for ATM testing and harbour driver mutations in potentially 'druggable' genes that would allow patients to be directed towards tailored therapeutic strategies., Conclusions: Although ATM is involved in the DNA damage response, ATM-associated tumours are distinct from BRCA1-associated tumours in terms of morphological characteristics and genomic alterations, and they are also distinguishable from sporadic breast tumours, thus opening up the possibility to identify ATM variant carriers outside the ataxia-telangiectasia disorder and direct them towards effective cancer risk management and therapeutic strategies.

Recent studies have linked constitutive telomere length (TL) to aging-related diseases including cancer at different sites. ATM participates in the signaling of telomere erosion, and inherited mutations in ATM have been associated with increased risk of cancer, particularly breast cancer. The goal of this study was to investigate whether carriage of an ATM mutation and TL interplay to modify cancer risk in ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T) families.The study population consisted of 284 heterozygous ATM mutation carriers (HetAT) and 174 non-carriers (non-HetAT) from 103 A-T families. Forty-eight HetAT and 14 non-HetAT individuals had cancer, among them 25 HetAT and 6 non-HetAT were diagnosed after blood sample collection. We measured mean TL using a quantitative PCR assay and genotyped seven single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) recurrently associated with TL in large population-based studies.HetAT individuals were at increased risk of cancer (OR = 2.3, 95%CI = 1.2-4.4, P = 0.01), and particularly of breast cancer for women (OR = 2.9, 95%CI = 1.2-7.1, P = 0.02), in comparison to their non-HetAT relatives. HetAT individuals had longer telomeres than non-HetAT individuals (P = 0.0008) but TL was not associated with cancer risk, and no significant interaction was observed between ATM mutation status and TL. Furthermore, rs9257445 (ZNF311) was associated with TL in HetAT subjects and rs6060627 (BCL2L1) modified cancer risk in HetAT and non-HetAT women.Our findings suggest that carriage of an ATM mutation impacts on the age-related TL shortening and that TL per se is not related to cancer risk in ATM carriers. TL measurement alone is not a good marker for predicting cancer risk in A-T families., (© The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press.)

Background: Less than 20% of familial breast cancer patients who undergo genetic testing for BRCA1 and BRCA2 carry a pathogenic mutation in one of these two genes. The GENESIS (GENE SISter) study was designed to identify new breast cancer susceptibility genes in women attending cancer genetics clinics and with no BRCA1/2 mutation., Methods: The study involved the French national network of family cancer clinics. It was based on enrichment in genetic factors of the recruited population through case selection relying on familial criteria, but also on the consideration of environmental factors and endophenotypes like mammary density or tumor characteristics to assess potential genetic heterogeneity. One of the initial aims of GENESIS was to recruit affected sibpairs. Siblings were eligible when index cases and at least one affected sister were diagnosed with infiltrating mammary or ductal adenocarcinoma, with no BRCA1/2 mutation. In addition, unrelated controls and unaffected sisters were recruited. The enrolment of patients, their relatives and their controls, the collection of the clinical, epidemiological, familial and biological data were centralized by a coordinating center., Results: Inclusion of participants started in February 2007 and ended in December 2013. A total of 1721 index cases, 826 affected sisters, 599 unaffected sisters and 1419 controls were included. 98% of participants completed the epidemiological questionnaire, 97% provided a blood sample, and 76% were able to provide mammograms. Index cases were on average 59 years old at inclusion, were born in 1950, and were 49.7 years of age at breast cancer diagnosis. The mean age at diagnosis of affected sisters was slightly higher (51.4 years). The representativeness of the control group was verified., Conclusions: The size of the study, the availability of biological specimens and the clinical data collection together with the detailed and complete epidemiological questionnaire make this a unique national resource for investigation of the missing heritability of breast cancer, by taking into account environmental and life style factors and stratifying data on endophenotypes to decrease genetic heterogeneity.

Biallelic inactivation of the ATM gene causes ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T), a complex neurological disease associated with a high risk of leukaemias and lymphomas. Mothers of A-T children, obligate ATM heterozygote mutation carriers, have a breast cancer (BC) relative risk of about 3. The frequency of ATM carriers in BC women with a BC family history has been estimated to be 2.70%. To further our clinical understanding of familial BC and examine whether haematological malignancies are predictive of ATM germline mutation, we estimated the frequency of heterozygote mutation carriers in a series of 122 BC women with a family history of both BC and haematological malignancy and without BRCA1/2 mutation. The gene screening was performed with a new high throughput method, EMMA (enhanced mismatch mutation analysis). Amongst 28 different ATM variants, eight mutations have been identified in eight patients: two mutations leading to a putative truncated protein and six being likely deleterious mutations. One of the truncating mutations was initially interpreted as a missense mutation, p.Asp2597Tyr, but is actually a splice mutation (c.7789G>T/p.Asp2597_Lys2643>LysfsX3). The estimated frequency of ATM heterozygote mutation carriers in our series is 6.56% (95% CI: 2.16-10.95), a significantly higher figure than that observed in the general population, estimated to be between 0.3 and 0.6%. Although a trend towards an increased frequency of ATM carriers was observed, it was not different from that observed in a population of familial BC women not selected for haematological malignancy as the frequency of ATM carriers was 2.70%, a value situated in the confidence interval of our study.

Epidemiological studies have indicated that ataxia-telangiectasia (AT) heterozygotes in AT families have an increased risk of cancer, particularly of breast cancer (BC). However, in BC case-control studies, no significant differences were found in the frequency of ATM mutations between patients and controls. In such studies missense mutations were found more frequently than truncating mutations, suggesting that the cancer risk depends on mutation type. To investigate this possibility, we assessed the risk of BC according to the type and position of the ATM truncating mutation in extended AT families. DNA or RNA that had been isolated from blood or buccal cells of AT children and their relatives was screened for ATM germ-line mutations using restriction endonuclease fingerprinting, the protein truncation test, fluorescence-assisted mismatch analysis, and direct sequencing. The standardized incidence ratio of cancer associated with ATM heterozygosity status and type of mutation was estimated. We tested for genotype-phenotype correlations by simulations, permuting mutations among parental branches. No significant difference was found in the relative risk of breast cancer or any other type of cancer based on mutation type. However, the occurrence of BC may be associated with truncating mutations in certain binding domains of the ATM protein (e.g., P53/BRCA1, beta-adaptin, and FAT domains; P = 0.006). In this limited sample set, the presence of missense or truncating ATM mutations was not associated with different cancer risks. The risk of BC appeared to be associated with the alteration of binding domains rather than with the length of the predicted ATM protein.

Ataxia-telangiectasia (AT) is a rare autosomal recessive early childhood disorder, characterized by progressive neuronal degeneration, immunological deficiency, radiosensitivity and an increased risk of cancer caused in most cases by mutations in the AT-mutated gene (ATM). Epidemiological studies on AT families have shown that AT heterozygous women have an increased risk of developing breast cancer (BC). The ATM protein plays a central role in the recognition and repair of DNA double-strand breaks and the subsequent activation of cell-cycle checkpoints. Whilst AT is a rare disease, 0.5-1 % of the general population are estimated to be AT mutation carriers, thus any increases in the risks of cancer associated with ATM carrier status are of public health relevance. The main results of our published studies on the risk of BC in 34 French AT families according to heterozygote status, type of ATM mutation and exogenous factors are summarized here. The risk of BC was higher in ATM heterozygous (HetATM) women and did not differ significantly according to the type of ATM mutation (missense vs truncating) carried by the AT family members but appeared associated with the position of some truncating mutations in certain binding domains of the ATM protein. The effect of exogenous factors, such as reproductive life factors and exposure to ionizing radiation, on the risk of BC according to ATM heterozygote status was assessed. There was no evidence for interaction (except for age at first full-term pregnancy). These findings does not appear to justify a separate screening program from that already available to other women with a first-degree relative affected by BC, as their risks have similar amplitude. Chest X-rays did not appear to be a risk factor for BC in our study population. More powerful studies, using data sets pooled from international sources are being set up to confirm these observations.