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Background: A significant portion of ovarian cancer (OC) cases is caused by germ-line mutations in BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes. BRCA testing is cheap in populations with founder effect and therefore recommended for all patients with OC diagnosis. Recurrent mutations constitute the vast majority of BRCA defects in Russia, however their impact in OC morbidity has not been yet systematically studied. Furthermore, Russian population is characterized by a relatively high frequency of CHEK2 and NBS1 (NBN) heterozygotes, but it remains unclear whether these two genes contribute to the OC risk.

H He er re ed di it ta ar ry y C Ca an nc ce er r i in n C Cl li in ni ic ca al l P Pr ra ac ct ti ic ce e 2007; 5(3) A Ab bs st tr ra ac ct t BRCA1 and BRCA2 germ-line mutations occur in a significant number of unselected ovarian cancer (OC) patients, thus making a noticeable contribution to OC morbidity. It is of interest whether CHEK2, which is frequently regarded as a third breast cancer specific gene, is also relevant to ovarian cancer pathogenesis. In this report we analyzed the presence of CHEK2 1100delC founder mutation in 268 randomly recruited OC patients. The mutation was identified in 2 women with OC (0.8%) as compared to 1/448 (0.2%) healthy middle-aged and 0/373 elderly tumour-free women. Taken together this result and the negative findings of two other published reports on an association of CHEK2 with ovarian cancer indicate that there is no justification for intensive ovarian cancer screening in CHEK2 1100delC carriers.

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