Li‐Fraumeni and Li‐Fraumeni—like syndrome among children diagnosed with pediatric cancer in Southern Brazil

BACKGROUND Pediatric cancers are a feature in patients with Li‐Fraumeni syndrome and its variant Li‐Fraumeni–like syndrome (LFS/LFL). To the best of the authors' knowledge, TP53 germline mutations are currently the only molecular defect known to be associated with this disease. Recently, a specific germline mutation in this gene, p.R337H, has been reported at a high prevalence in Brazil. METHODS The prevalence of LFS/LFL was investigated in children with cancer who were diagnosed with tumors on the LFS/LFL spectrum and in a small consecutive series of controls without cancer. The prevalence of the germline p.R337H mutation and of other germline TP53 mutations was investigated in a general group of children with cancer and exclusively in children fulfilling the clinical criteria for LFS/LFL, respectively. RESULTS Among the 65 children without cancer, 1.5% had a family history of LFL whereas of the 292 children with cancer, 25.3% had a family history of LFL (P