Journal
ENDOCRINE-RELATED CANCER
Volume 20, Issue 4, Pages C13-C17Publisher
BIOSCIENTIFICA LTD
DOI: 10.1530/ERC-13-0046
Keywords
NF1; pheochromocytomas; molecular genetics; somatic mutations; sporadic tumors
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Patients suffering from the neurofibromatosis type 1 syndrome, which is caused by germline mutations in the NF1 gene, have a tiny but not negligible risk of developing pheochromocytomas. It is, therefore, of interest that the NF1 gene has recently been revealed to carry somatic, inactivating mutations in a total of 35 (21.7%) of 161 sporadic pheochromocytomas in two independent tumor series. A majority of the tumors in both studies displayed loss of heterozygosity at the NF1 locus and a low NF1 mRNA expression. In view of previous findings that many sporadic pheochromocytomas cluster with neurofibromatosis type 1 syndrome-associated pheochromocytomas instead of forming clusters of their own, NF1 inactivation appears to be an important step in the pathogenesis of a large number of sporadic pheochromocytomas. A literature and public mutation database review has revealed that pheochromocytomas are among those human neoplasms in which somatic NF1 alterations are most frequent.
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