Germline mutations of E-cadherin gene in Korean familial gastric cancer patients.

Gastric cancer is the most common cancer in Korea. Germline mutations of the E-cadherin gene have recently been identified in familial gastric cancer patients. We screened five Korean familial gastric cancer patients to investigate germline mutations of the E-cadherin gene. These patients fulfilled the following criteria: presence of at least two gastric cancer patients within first-degree relatives and one patient diagnosed before the age of 50 years. Abnormal band patterns were found in exons 6 and 10 in two familial gastric cancer patients by polymerase chain reaction-single strand conformation polymorphism analysis (probands from the SNU-G2 and SNU-G1001 families, respectively). DNA sequencing analysis of the E-cadherin gene of these two patients revealed missense mutations in each exon. The SNU-G2 proband harbored a missense mutation from aspartic acid (GAT) to glycine (GGT) at codon 244 in exon 6 of the E-cadherin gene, and the SNU-G1001 proband had a missense mutation from valine (GTG) to alanine (GCG) at codon 487 in exon 10. The SNU-G2 proband was diagnosed with gastric cancer at the age of 38; three brothers and two sisters had died of gastric cancer under the age of 50, and their mother had died of gastric cancer at the age of 63. The SNU-G1001 proband was diagnosed with gastric cancer at the age of 42 and one brother had died of gastric cancer at the age of 49. In summary, we found germline mutations of the E-cadherin gene in two of five Korean familial gastric cancer patients screened.