Germline mutations of the CDKN2A (p16(INK4A)) tumor suppressor gene predispose patients to melanoma and pancreatic carcinoma. In contrast, mutations of the murine CDKN2A gene predispose BALB/c mice to pristane-induced plasmacytoma. We describe here a family in which a germline mutation of CDKN2A is present in 4 individuals who developed melanoma as well as in a fifth family member who is suffer...

Recent studies have shown that methylation of the CpG island within the p16/CDKN2A gene is associated with an absence of p16 protein in human pituitary tumors. However, the effect of restoration of p16 protein expression in this tumor type has not been investigated. In the absence of an available human pituitary cell line we first assessed the suitability of the mouse corticotroph cell line AtT...

(Fig 2a) or by MSP-PCR (Fig 2b). Our results suggest little or no involvement of genetic or epigenetic alterations of CDKN2A in nevus etiology, and thus support the data of others who have failed to detect CDKN2A mutation (Healy et al, 1996b) or methylation (Gonzalgo et al, 1997) in various types of nevi; however, our ®ndings do not rule out mutations in noncoding regions nor factors other than...

Epidemiological studies have shown that asbestos fibers constitute the major occupational risk factor and that asbestos acts synergistically with tobacco smoking to induce lung cancer. Although some somatic gene alterations in lung cancer have been linked to tobacco smoke, few data are available on the role of asbestos fibers. P16/CDKN2A is an important tumor suppressor gene that is frequently ...

This study aimed to identify the molecular genetic variations associated with an increased risk of hereditary malignant melanoma (HMM) in the western Swedish population. In 68 families with increased hereditary susceptibility to malignant melanoma, we previously reported a low frequency of alterations in the CDKN2A gene, which is regarded as the major melanoma predisposition gene. Among these a...

Purpose: 9p21 is a major target in the pathogenesis of human urinary bladder cancer. The locus harbors the CDKN2A/ARF tumor suppressor gene, which encodes two cell cycle regulatory proteins cyclin dependent kinase 2A (p16) and alternate reading frame (p14). We have designed a real-time quantitative PCR (QPCR) application to study homozygous deletion (HD) of CDKN2A/ARF in 186 urinary bladder can...

Germline mutations in CDKN2A gene predispose to melanoma with high but incomplete penetrance. Penetrance of CDKN2A gene was found to be significantly influenced by host factors (nevus phenotypes and sunburn) on one hand and by variants of MC1R gene (RHC variants consistently associated with red hair and fair skin) on the other hand. Our goal was to examine the joint effects of MC1R variants and...

Host, environmental and genetic factors differently modulate cutaneous melanoma (CM) risk across populations. Currently, the main genetic risk determinants are germline mutations in the major known high-risk susceptibility genes, CDKN2A and CDK4, and variants of the low-risk gene MC1R, which is key in the pigmentation process. This case-control study aimed at investigating the influence of the ...

BACKGROUND Two genes have been implicated in the development of cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM). CDK4 (the gene encoding cyclin-dependent kinase 4, an oncogene) has exhibited germline mutations found in only three melanoma-prone families to date. CDKN2A is a tumor suppressor gene that encodes p16 (which inhibits activity of the cyclin D1-CDK4 complex) with germline mutations detected in 10%-...

The CDKN2A gene has been implicated in cutaneous malignant melanoma pathogenesis. Although CDKN2A mutations confer substantial risk for melanoma, clinicoepidemiological covariates including dysplastic nevi (DN), total nevi, and solar injury also enhance melanoma risk. To examine the relationship between CDKN2A and these three risk factors, we conducted combined segregation/linkage analysis usin...