Hereditary cancer genes

1. A method of administering a treatment regimen to a patient, wherein said administering treatment regimen comprises performing a bilateral mastectomy on the patient, the method comprises the steps of:

a) extracting genomic DNA from a sample comprising germline cells of the patient;

b) forming a mixture by hybridizing nucleic acid probes in a library to a plurality of nucleic acid molecules in the genomic DNA, wherein said plurality of nucleic acid molecules comprise the coding regions of a plurality of test genes and wherein said plurality of test genes comprise target genes: APC gene, ATM gene, BARD1 gene, BMPR1A gene, Breast Cancer 1 (BRCA1) gene, Breast Cancer 2 (BRCA2) gene, BRIP1 gene, CDH1 gene, CDK4 gene, CDKN2A gene, CHEK2 gene, EPCAM gene, MLH1 gene, MSH2 gene, MSH6 gene, MUTYH gene, NBN1 gene, PALB2 gene, PMS2 gene, phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) gene, RAD51C gene, RAD51D gene, SMAD4 gene, STK11 gene, and TP53 gene;

c) performing one or more amplification reactions for amplifying said plurality of nucleic acid molecules in the mixture in the presence of one or more primer pairs, wherein each of the primer pairs generates amplification products comprising a portion of each of the target genes, the amplification products being between 50 and 1000 nucleotides in length;

d) determining the sequences of said amplification products;

e) comparing the sequences of the amplification products with one or more reference sequences of each of the target genes using an alignment software; and

f) detecting whether a deleterious germline mutation is present in at least one of the sequences of the amplification products by correlating the sequences of the amplification products with deleterious germline mutations of the target genes; and

g) administering the treatment regimen to the patient if a deleterious germline mutation in at least one of BRCA1 gene, BRCA2 gene, PTEN gene and TP53 gene is detected in the sequences of the amplification products.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more reference sequences comprise the sequence of each of the target genes in the following table:

Entrez Gene

SEQ

Symbol

ID NO

APC

1

ATM

20

BARD1

21

BMPR1A

60

BRCA1

97

BRCA2

128

BRIP1

158

CDH1

182

CDK1

201

CDKN2A

212

CHEK2

223

EPCAM

244

MLH1

289

MSH2

355

MSH6

374

MUTYH

387

NBN

411

PALB2

430

PMS2

450

PTEN

475

RAD51C

516

RAD51D

521

SMAD4

546

STK1

561

TP53

576.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the amplification products comprises at least a portion of an exon sequence and an intron sequence comprising at least 10 base pairs in length flanking at least one end of said exon sequence.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of determining if the patient has at least one second level risk factor comprising personal risk factors and family risk factors.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the personal risk factors comprise that the patient has a history of multiple primary cancers, a positive triple negative breast cancer, a history of ovarian cancer, a history of smoking, a positive tissue biopsy for a cancer, a positive vaginal pap smear for a cancer, a history of male breast cancer, an enlarged prostate, and colon polyps, and age of the patient when a cancer is diagnosed, age of menopause of the patient, and age of menarche of the patient.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein the family risk factors comprise that the patient has Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry, a relative with early onset cancer, a relative with multiple primary cancers, a relative with male breast cancer, a relative with ovarian cancer, and a relative with triple negative breast cancer.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the target genes comprise at least 25% of the plurality of test genes.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the target genes comprise at least 50% of the plurality of test genes.