THE CYSTIC-FIBROSIS DELTA-F508 GENE-MUTATIONS AND CANCER

Following the observation that relatives of cystic fibrosis (CF) patie nts have an increased mortality due to leukaemia, a study was initiate d to determine whether leukaemia patients had an increased prevalence of the Delta F508 CF mutation. No increase in carriers were found amon g leukaemias; however the carrier frequency of the Delta F508 mutation appeared to be reduced in patients with malignant melanoma analysed a s a control group compared to the normal population. This paper extend s our previous study and investigates several other common human tumou rs, including those of the colon, breast, and lymphoma tissue. Fewer t han expected carriers remained among the melanoma group from South Wal es. There were fewer than expected carriers among patients with colon cancer compared to the normal population. The prevalence of the Delta F508 mutation was normal in lymphomas and leukaemias. (C) 1997 Wiley-L iss, Inc.