NCCN Guidelines Insights: Genetic/Familial High-Risk Assessment: Colorectal, Version 2.2019

Identifying individuals with hereditary syndromes allows for improved cancer surveillance, risk reduction, and optimized management. Establishing criteria for assessment allows for the identification of individuals who are carriers of pathogenic genetic variants. The NCCN Guidelines for Genetic/Familial High-Risk Assessment: Colorectal provide recommendations for the assessment and management of patients with high-risk colorectal cancer syndromes. These NCCN Guidelines Insights focus on criteria for the evaluation of Lynch syndrome and considerations for use of multigene testing in the assessment of hereditary colorectal cancer syndromes.

Principles of Diagnosis and Personalized Treatment of Hereditary Colorectal Cancer

The most frequent forms of hereditary colorectal cancer syndromes are Lynch syndrome and familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP). All the patients with suspicion to these syndromes need precise clinical and genetic diagnostics. Affected patients need personalized program of treatment because standard algorithm cannot be considered sufficiently effective. Identification of a pathogenic mutation in a patient indicates the need for DNA diagnostics in his close relatives and only in this case all the carriers of pathogenic germline mutations can be included in the high-risk group. Algorithms of clinical monitoring and operative treatment for mutation carriers were developed in different countries. However, different populations have their own genetic and clinical features. The aim of this work was to highlight the principles of diagnosis and personalized treatment of patients with hereditary colorectal cancer, taking into account international and Russian recommendations.