Three discrete regions of deletion at 3p in head and neck cancers.
Alteration of the short arm of chromosome 3 is one of the most consistent cytogenetic abnormalities found in human head and neck cancers. These alterations, composed of translocations and deletions, have been associated with the presence of a tumor suppressor gene(s), but no clear evidence of the location of this presumptive gene(s) was available. We performed a molecular analysis of the 3p region using a polymerase chain reaction-based approach. Twenty-eight of the 38 cases analyzed (74%) showed the presence of single or multiple areas of allelic loss. Three commonly deleted regions, tentatively mapped to 3p24-ter, 3p21.3, and 3p14--cen, were identified. Our results suggest that at least three oncosuppressor genes mapping on 3p may be involved in head and neck cancer development and support a common oncogenic pathway with squamous cell lung cancer, for which a similar pattern of 3p deletion has been described recently.
Maestro
R
R
Division of Experimental Oncology 1, Centro di Riferimento Oncologico, Aviano (PN), Italy.
Gasparotto
D
D
Vukosavljevic
T
T
Barzan
L
L
Sulfaro
S
S
Boiocchi
M
M
D001483:Base Sequence; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000235:genetics*; D002872:Chromosome Deletion; D002893:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 3; D016147:Genes, Tumor Suppressor; D006258:Head and Neck Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data