Microsatellite instability in oral cancer.
Generalized genomic instability, detected as somatic changes in allele sizes at microsatellite loci in tumors compared to peripheral lymphocyte DNA, is a recently recognized mechanism of mutation in cancer. Such instability results from the somatic loss of DNA mismatch repair capability. Germ-line mutations at DNA mismatch repair loci confer susceptibility to colon cancer in hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer. Somatic loss of DNA mismatch repair has been reported in a large variety of other tumor types. Our goal was to determine the frequency of microsatellite instability in a large series of oral tumors. Out of 91 tumors analyzed for microsatellite instability, 6 (7%) showed microsatellite instability. Instability was observed at multiple loci with a range of 50-74% of loci affected. Alterations include both increase (74%) and decrease (26%) in allele sizes. The proportion of alleles affected ranged from 30-58% of all alleles. Our data suggest that somatic genomic instability plays a role in the pathogenesis of a small subset of oral tumors.
Ishwad
C S
CS
Department of Human Genetics, University of Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA.
Ferrell
R E
RE
Rossie
K M
KM
Appel
B N
BN
Johnson
J T
JT
Myers
E N
EN
Law
J C
JC
Srivastava
S
S
Gollin
S M
SM
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000483:Alleles; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics*; D002877:Chromosomes, Human; D004260:DNA Repair; D004261:DNA Replication; D004273:DNA, Neoplasm / Q000235:genetics*; D004276:DNA, Satellite / Q000235:genetics*; D005819:Genetic Markers; D006801:Humans; D008214:Lymphocytes / Q000648:ultrastructure; D008875:Middle Aged; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics*
D004273:DNA, Neoplasm; D004276:DNA, Satellite; D005819:Genetic Markers