About 20% of colorectal cancer (CRC) patients have a genetic component and HNPCC is the most common autosomal dominant hereditary syndrome.
Some Chinese HNPCC pedigrees were recently reported in the January 14, 2008 issue of the World Journal of Gastroenterology because of their great significance for hereditary CRC. This article will undoubtedly bring comfort to many families.
The article describes how five independent Chinese kindreds of HNPCC fulfilled the classical Amsterdam Criteria, as collected by Prof. Yulong He and Dr. Changhua Zhang of Sun Yet-san University in China. The research group has constructed a CRC database since 1994 and the follow-up rate has always been above 90%. Eleven independent Chinese kindreds of HNPCC were collected by deep pedigree investigation until January, 2004 and five of them fulfilled the classical Amsterdam Criteria¢ñ. To identify high-risk populations with HNPCC, the group tested hMSH2 and hMLH1 mutation in these classical kindreds.