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DNA and genomes · Use case

Interpret BRCA1/BRCA2 germline variants

Which evidence-support methods improve BRCA1/BRCA2 variant review without increasing serious classification errors?

Evidence collection plan

Collection planned

Evidence collection is planned for this question. The plan defines a comparison to investigate; it does not establish model performance or suitability.

Comparison question

Can an evidence-support method reduce review effort without increasing serious classification or criteria errors relative to standard gene-specific review?

Baselines to include

  • Manual criteria-based review using the same evidence cutoff and ClinGen ENIGMA specification

Outcomes to measure

  • Serious classification disagreements and criterion-assignment errors
  • Coverage of unresolved cases and preservation of conflicts
  • Review time against independent expert adjudication

Validation requirements

  • Record the specification version, classification date and germline confirmation.
  • Audit predictor circularity and overlap with functional training data.
  • Use temporal and gene/domain separation appropriate to the intended claim.
  • Retain uncertain and conflicting cases and predefine error severity.
  • Obtain blinded independent adjudication by qualified hereditary-cancer reviewers.

Next collection task

Prepare a BRCA1/BRCA2 interpretation evidence matrix with criteria versions, label provenance, error severity and unmet independent-adjudication needs.

Your decision and inputs

Choose methods that assemble and assess variant evidence under gene-specific criteria for a professional BRCA1/BRCA2 classification review.

Who this is for
Germline variant scientists; Hereditary-cancer genetics reviewers
Context
Clinical research
Inputs
  • Confirmed germline variant, reference transcript and assay limitations
  • Population frequency, segregation, phenotype and functional evidence with dates
  • A relevant, versioned ClinGen ENIGMA specification and evidence cutoff
Expected output
A classification dossier with criterion-level evidence, conflicts, uncertainty and further information needed for review.
Biological setting
Germline BRCA1/BRCA2 interpretation in hereditary-cancer testing. Additional genes require their own specifications and comparisons.

Outside this use case

  • Germline classification does not estimate an individual's absolute cancer risk or select treatment.
  • Tumour-only sequencing does not confirm germline status.
  • Functional scores and computational predictions are evidence inputs, not complete classifications.

What this establishes for clinical research

Clinical research on hereditary-cancer evidence review. A VUS does not justify management changes; a negative panel does not remove risk associated with family history.

Which evaluations inform this question?

No model comparison has been collected for this question yet.

Relevant methods and studies may exist outside this collection.

View the evidence plan and next collection task

What evidence is still missing?

  • Independent classifications with documented criteria, date and predictor contributions remain to be collected.
  • Qualified hereditary-cancer reviewers are needed to adjudicate serious errors and unresolved or conflicting evidence.
  • Public assertions may incorporate the method being tested and cannot be assumed to provide independent labels.

Contribute evidence or propose a correction

Sources and review

Automated source review · 2026-09-28 · Codex

Automated review of Rewire's workflow definition and sourced research brief against the agreed exploration and backlog. No human expert approval, model-applicability assessment or clinical validation is claimed.

Release provenance and downloads

Release 2026-09-28-c7b5ac6d34f2

Use-case input digest a0dd27a5f430ec387d309fd6e8615083250873ce4cff5e882c6fb8458ef80e95

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Question use-case-brca1-brca2-germline-interpretation. Any numerical results on this page come from this release's existing evaluation records.