Summary: | Thesis (M.Sc.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2009. Medicine Includes bibliographical references (leaves 88-119) Hereditary Non-Polyposis Colorectal Cancer (HNPCC) is the most common type of inherited colorectal cancer. Eighty to ninety percent of identified mutations in HNPCC families involve MSH2 or MLH1 genes. However, a great degree of variability has been observed within and between families carrying the same mutation. Therefore, other factors such as modifying genes may be involved in the presentation of this disease. The cell cycle, the mismatch repair pathway, and folate metabolism have been associated with cancer. Therefore, I studied 31 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from genes in these pathways to determine if they had a modifying effect on the disease penetrance. Two MSH2 kindreds were used in this study, one from Newfoundland and one from the Lower North Shore of Quebec. They included 135 mutation carriers. I identified 3 SNPs CCND1 1722 GC, CCNA2 GA, and CDKN1B ( p27KIP1 ) TG, which had signifierait effect on the age of disease onset.
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