An interesting area of progress to identify individuals with inherited risks included a study of over 13,000 individuals with six or more basal cell cancers (BCC) evaluated through a claims database. Results indicated ~20% of these individuals had a germline mutation in a DNA repair gene, including BRCA1/2, PALB2, and the Lynch syndrome genes, among others. Furthermore, these individuals had over a 3-fold risk of other malignancies. These findings suggest that frequent BCC may represent a marker to identify potential inherited cancer risk.
Cho HG, et al. JCI Insight. 2018 Aug 9. PMID: 30089731.