554 Background: Limited studies have investigated the molecular underpinnings driving breast cancer development in Chinese younger women. Based from our previous data, more Chinese women are diagnosed with early-onset breast cancer than in the West. In our study, we aim to investigate the comprehensive mutational profile of Chinese women 35 years old and younger (≤35y) diagnosed with breast cancer. Methods: Targeted sequencing was performed on surgically-removed tumor tissues and blood samples collected from 589 women diagnosed with stage I-III breast cancer of various molecular subtypes at the Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital (GPDH) using a gene panel interrogating 520 cancer-related genes. We compared the data of 53 women aged ≤35y from our cohort to the data from 33 breast cancer patients aged ≤35y included in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) dataset. Results: Among the women aged ≤35y with early-stage breast cancer from both cohorts, our cohort had more number of hormone receptor-positive (HR+) patients (GPDH, 72% vs. TCGA, 61%, P< 0.001). Analysis revealed an overall mutation detection rate of 98% in our cohort, with mutations affecting genes involved in the PI3K pathway (47%) and cell cycle pathway (23%). TP53 and PIK3CA were the most commonly mutated genes, with mutation rates of 51% and 25% from our cohort. No statistical difference in mutation profile was found between GPDH and TCGA cohorts. Moreover, germline mutations considered as pathogenic and likely pathogenic (P/LP) in breast cancer susceptibility genes including BRCA1 (n = 4), BRCA2 (n = 2), PALB2 (n = 1), PMS2 (n = 1), PTEN (n = 1), and ATM (n = 1) were detected from 18.9% (10/53) of the patients from our cohort. Women aged ≤35y had significantly more germline BRCA1 mutations than patients > 35y from our cohort (7.5%, 4/53 vs. 2.1%, 11/536 P= 0.049). Conclusions: Our study has identified the involvement of PI3K and cell cycle as the two key pathways in the early development of breast tumors in younger women. In addition, our results also support the role of P/LP germline mutations in breast oncogenesis in Chinese patients with early-onset breast cancer, indicating the need to include a more comprehensive germline mutation screening in our population.
Analysis of repair of abasic sites in early onset breast cancer patients
