Article Text
Letter
Germline testing of mismatch repair genes is not aided by prescreening tumours for allelic loss
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Immunostaining and microsatellite testing of tumours is increasingly being used to guide germline testing in individuals with suspected hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC).1 While the aim of these prescreening tests is to minimise the cost and maximise the chance of identifying a pathogenic germline change, it is clear that neither alone is ideal. In clinical practice, germline testing can often only be justified where an individual has developed a tumour which is microsatellite unstable, and which fails to express a mismatch …