Microsatellite instability in sporadic human breast cancers.
Human breast-cancer specimens from 100 patients were analyzed for microsatellite instability (referred to as replication error; RER) at 12 genomic loci on 7 chromosomes, and results were correlated with clinicopathologic characteristics. In 42 of 100 breast-cancer patients, we investigated whether RER was associated with the amplification of oncogenes and/or suppression of tumor-suppressor genes. Of the 100 patients, 8 (8%) were RER-positive at one or more chromosomal loci. The majority of RER-positive patients had early-stage disease with ER-positive tumors, suggesting that RER occurs early in breast tumorigenesis. However, no significant correlation was observed between RER and oncogenes or tumor-suppressor genes. Thus, the mechanism of RER in sporadic human breast cancer may be independent of the multi-step carcinogenesis caused by the alterations of oncogenes and tumor-suppressor genes.
Toyama
T
T
Department of Surgery II, Nagoya City University Medical School, Japan. t.toyama@cmews2.med.nagoya-cu.ac.jp
Iwase
H
H
Yamashita
H
H
Iwata
H
H
Yamashita
T
T
Ito
K
K
Hara
Y
Y
Suchi
M
M
Kato
T
T
Nakamura
T
T
Kobayashi
S
S
D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D004260:DNA Repair; D005260:Female; D016147:Genes, Tumor Suppressor; D006801:Humans; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats; D008875:Middle Aged; D009857:Oncogenes