Clinical Significance of Germline Variants in the <i>BRCA2</i> Gene and Their Association With Prostate Cancer Risk in Polish Men: A Case-Control Study

ObjectivesCurrently, prostate cancer (PC) is the most common medical problem endangering men's health and life worldwide. We tested the association of detected germline variants in <i>BRCA2</i> with PC risk and estimated their impact on the clinical course of the disease, including overall survival time, in Polish men with localized PC that qualified for radical prostatectomy (RP).Materials and MethodsDNA of 97 PC patients from various age groups and with different disease stages was analyzed. Control DNA samples consisted of 100 male volunteers without PC that were age-matched to the study group. Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) and Sanger sequencing were used for variant detection.ResultsFive rare variants of the <i>BRCA2</i> gene were detected in single PC patients. There were four substitutions (c.8010G>C, c.682-32A>G, c.9257-75G>C, c.516+17G>C) and one deletion (c.6393_6396del). Among the detected variants, one was pathogenic, one was a variant of uncertain significance (VUS), and three were likely benign. The c.8010G>C was a new variant. In the carrier of the c.6393_6396del pathogenic variant, PC was diagnosed at the T3 stage and the patient survived 48 months after PC confirmation (the date of biopsy).ConclusionsThe <i>BRCA2</i> c.6393_6396del pathogenic variant demonstrates an association with clinical features of the disease (GS and TNM) and shorter survival of patients with localized prostate cancer that qualified for RP. Additionally, our findings suggest that multi-organ cancer aggregation in a family, including prostate cancer aggregation in close relatives, and young age at cancer onset should be taken into consideration by clinicians as an indication to refer patients to molecular testing.