The genetic era of childhood cancer: Identification of high-risk patients and germline sequencing approaches

Abstract

Childhood cancer is a leading cause of death by disease in children ages 5–14, for which there are no preventive strategies. Due to early-age of diagnosis and short period of exposure to environmental factors, increasing evidence suggests childhood cancer could have strong association with germline alterations in predisposition cancer genes but, their frequency and distribution are largely unknown. Several efforts have been made to develop tools to identify children with increased risk of cancer who may benefit from genetic testing but their validation and application on a large scale is necessary. Research on genetic bases of childhood cancer is ongoing, in which several approaches for the identification of genetic variants related to cancer predisposition have been used. In this paper, we discuss the updated efforts, strategies, molecular mechanisms and clinical implications for germline predisposition gene alterations and the characterization of risk variants in childhood cancer.