hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer

noun

variants or hereditary nonpolyposis colon cancer

: lynch syndrome

Lynch syndrome, also known as hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer …, is the most common form of hereditary CRC [=colorectal cancer], accounting for 1% to 3% of all these tumors.

—Leticia Moreira et al., The Journal of the American Medical Association

Such is the case in another inherited colon cancer, hereditary nonpolyposis colon cancer. Afflicted individuals make defective versions of a protein responsible for repairing the copying mistakes made by the DNA replication apparatus. Because of this impairment, colonic cells cannot fix DNA damage efficiently; they therefore collect mutations rapidly, accelerating cancer development by two decades or more.

—Robert A. Weinberg, Scientific American

—abbreviation HNPCC