Analysis of Li–Fraumeni syndrome and Li–Fraumeni-like families for germline mutations in Bcl10

The Li–Fraumeni syndrome (LFS) is a dominant disease whose hallmark is an increased risk of breast cancers, brain tumours, sarcomas, leukaemia and adrenal carcinoma. Some, but not all LFS and Li–Fraumeni-like (LFL) families are caused by TP53 mutations. Bcl10 is a recently identified tumour suppressor reported to be commonly mutated in a wide range of cancers. To investigate the possibility that Bcl10 is a susceptibility gene for LFS and LFL we have analysed 27 LFS/LFL families. No mutations were observed. This indicates that Bcl10 is unlikely to act as a susceptibility gene for LFS and LFL.