Screening of potential novel candidate genes in schwannomatosis patients

Update on Cancer Predisposition Syndromes and Surveillance Guidelines for Childhood Brain Tumors

Tumors of the central nervous system (CNS) comprise the second most common group of neoplasms in childhood. The incidence of germline predisposition among children with brain tumors continues to grow as our knowledge on disease etiology increases. Some children with brain tumors may present with nonmalignant phenotypic features of specific syndromes (e.g., nevoid basal cell carcinoma syndrome, neurofibromatosis type 1 and type 2, DICER1 syndrome, and constitutional mismatch-repair deficiency), while others may present with a strong family history of cancer (e.g., Li-Fraumeni syndrome) or with a rare tumor commonly found in the context of germline predisposition (e.g., rhabdoid tumor predisposition syndrome). Approximately 50% of patients with a brain tumor may be the first in a family identified to have a predisposition. The past decade has witnessed a rapid expansion in our molecular understanding of CNS tumors. A significant proportion of CNS tumors are now well characterized and known to harbor specific genetic changes that can be found in the germline. Additional novel predisposition syndromes are also being described. Identification of these germline syndromes in individual patients has not only enabled cascade testing of family members and early tumor surveillance but also increasingly affected cancer management in those patients. Therefore, the AACR Cancer Predisposition Working Group chose to highlight these advances in CNS tumor predisposition and summarize and/or generate surveillance recommendations for established and more recently emerging pediatric brain tumor predisposition syndromes.

Schwannomatosis: a Realm Reborn: year one

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

In 2022, an international consensus recommendation revised the nomenclature for neurofibromatosis type 2 ( NF2 ) and Schwannomatosis (SWN), now grouped under the umbrella term Schwannomatosis, and defined new diagnostic criteria.

RECENT FINDINGS

This review describes the molecular criteria for diagnosis of schwannomatosis and the subsequent diagnosis strategy, while setting out the most recent advances in our understanding of the natural history, pathology, molecular biology and treatment of schwannomatosis-associated tumors, including schwannomas, meningiomas and ependymomas.

SUMMARY

Somatic mutation screening should become a new standard for the diagnosis of NF2 -, LTZTR1 -, SMARCB1 - and 22q-schwannomatosis to discriminate those conditions. Constitutional events in NF2 -Schwannomatosis have a major influence on disease severity and justifiably motivate ongoing efforts on gene replacement therapy research. On the other hand, underlying mechanisms of disease severity and associated pain remain largely unknown in non- NF2 -SWN and independent of germline mutation. Research efforts therefore focus on pain relief in ongoing trials and the discovery of new molecular mechanisms underlying schwannoma tumorigenesis/pain/neuropathies.

A Comprehensive Pan-Cancer Analysis of the Tumorigenic Effect of Leucine-Zipper-Like Transcription Regulator (LZTR1) in Human Cancer

The elucidation of the action site, mechanism of Leucine-Zipper-like Transcription Regulator-1 (LZTR1) and its relationship with RAS-MAPK signaling pathway attracts more and more scholars to focus on the researches of LZTR1 and its role in tumorigenesis. However, there was no pan-cancer analysis between LZTR1 and human tumors reported before. Therefore, we are the first to investigate the potential oncogenic roles of LZTR1 across all tumor types based on the datasets of TCGA (The Cancer Genome Atlas) and GEO (Gene Expression Omnibus). LZTR1 plays a double-edged role in tumor development and prognosis. We found that the high expression of LZTR1 brings better outcomes in esophageal carcinoma (ESCA) and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSC) but brings worth outcomes in uveal melanoma (UVM), adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC), liver hepatocellular carcinoma (LIHC), and prostate adenocarcinoma (PRAD). Moreover, the expression of LZTR1 also strongly associated with pathological in ACC and bladder urothelial carcinoma (BLCA). We also found that the LZTR1 expression was associated with some immune cell infiltration including endothelial cells, regulatory T cells (Tregs), T cell CD8+, natural killer cells (NK cell), macrophages, neutrophil granulocyte, and cancer-associated fibroblasts in different cancers. Missense mutation in LZTR1 was detected in most cancers from TCGA datasets. Finally, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway and Gene Body (GO) method was used to explain the pathogenesis of LZTR1. Our pan-cancer study provides a relatively comprehensive understanding of the carcinogenic role of LZTR1 in human tumors.