Hypothesis: Possible role of retinoic acid therapy in patients with biallelic mismatch repair gene defects

Eur J Pediatr. 2008 Feb;167(2):225-9. doi: 10.1007/s00431-007-0474-3. Epub 2007 Mar 27.

Abstract

A boy showing symptoms of a Turcot-like childhood cancer syndrome together with stigmata of neurofibromatosis type I is reported. His brother suffers from an infantile myofibromatosis, and a sister died of glioblastoma at age 7. Another 7-year-old brother is so far clinically unaffected. The parents are consanguineous. Molecular diagnosis in the index patient revealed a constitutional homozygous mutation of the mismatch repair gene PMS2. The patient was in remission of his glioblastoma (WHO grade IV) after multimodal treatment followed by retinoic acid chemoprevention for 7 years. After discontinuation of retinoic acid medication, he developed a relapse of his brain tumour together with the simultaneous occurrence of three other different HNPCC-related carcinomas. We think that retinoic acid might have provided an effective chemoprevention in this patient with homozygous mismatch repair gene defect. We propose to take a retinoic acid chemoprevention into account in children with proven biallelic PMS2 mismatch repair mutations being at highest risk concerning the development of a malignancy.

Publication types

  • Case Reports
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adenomatous Polyps / genetics
  • Adenomatous Polyps / prevention & control
  • Adenosine Triphosphatases / genetics*
  • Alleles
  • Base Pair Mismatch
  • Brain Neoplasms / drug therapy
  • Brain Neoplasms / genetics
  • Brain Neoplasms / prevention & control*
  • Child
  • Colorectal Neoplasms / genetics
  • Colorectal Neoplasms / prevention & control
  • DNA Repair Enzymes / genetics*
  • DNA-Binding Proteins / genetics*
  • Female
  • Germ-Line Mutation
  • Glioblastoma / drug therapy
  • Glioblastoma / genetics
  • Glioblastoma / prevention & control*
  • Homozygote
  • Humans
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • Male
  • Microsatellite Instability
  • Microsatellite Repeats
  • Mismatch Repair Endonuclease PMS2
  • Mutation
  • Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / prevention & control*
  • Syndrome
  • Tretinoin / therapeutic use*

Substances

  • DNA-Binding Proteins
  • Tretinoin
  • Adenosine Triphosphatases
  • PMS2 protein, human
  • Mismatch Repair Endonuclease PMS2
  • DNA Repair Enzymes