The Cys148Arg and Trp149Stop variants in the tumour suppressor gene ARLTS1 predispose to familial breast cancer, suggesting that these variants might also contribute to colorectal carcinogenesis.
On the contrary, the ARLTS1-MUT induced significantly lower levels of apoptosis in infected cells and reduced in vivo tumorigenesis only partially, supporting the hypothesis that Trp149Stop polymorphism is retained in the general population and predisposes to cancer because of a reduction, but not full loss, of normal ARLTS1 function.