Germline Variants and Phenotypic Spectrum in a Canadian Cohort of Individuals with Diffuse Gastric Cancer

Background: CDH1 pathogenic variants (pvs) cause most cases of inherited diffuse gastric cancer (dgc), but have low detection rates and vary geographically. In the present study, we examined hereditary causes of dgc in patients in Ontario. Methods: CDH1 testing through single-site or multi-gene panels was conducted for patients with dgc meeting the 2015 International Gastric Cancer Linkage Consortium (igclc) criteria, or with isolated dgc at less than 50 years of age, or with a strong family history of cancer identified at the Zane Cohen Centre (zcc). All CDH1-positive patients at zcc, regardless of cancer history, were summarized. Results: In 15 of 85 patients with dgc (17.6%), a pv or likely pv was identified through CDH1 single-site (n = 43) or multi-gene panel (n = 42) testing. The detection rate was 9.4% overall (8 of 85) and 11% using igclc criteria (7 of 65). No CDH1 pvs were identified in patients with isolated dgc at less than 40 years of age, but 1 pv was identified in a patient with isolated dgc at less than 50 years of age. Multi-gene panels identified 9 pvs (21.4%), including CDH1, STK11, ATM, BRCA2, MLH1, and MSH2. Review of 81 CDH1 carriers identified 10% with dgc (median age: 48 years; range: 38–59 years); 41% were unaffected (median age: 53 years; range: 26–89 years). Observed malignancies other than dgc or lobular breast cancer (lbc) included colorectal, gynecologic, kidney or bladder, prostate, testicular, and ductal breast cancers. Lobular-breast cancer was seen only in 3 families. Conclusions: In Ontario, the detection rate of CDH1 pvs in patients with dgc was low: no pvs were identified in patients with isolated dgc at less than 40 years of age, and 1 was identified in a patient with isolated dgc at less than 50 years of age. Isolated lbc with no dgc was observed in CDH1-positive families, as were pathology-confirmed non-dgc or non-lbc malignancies, which had not previously been reported. Given a phenotype that overlaps with other hereditary conditions, multi-gene panels are recommended for all patients with dgc at less than 50 years of age and for those meeting igclc criteria.