title: Early onset of gastric carcinoma and constitutional deletion of 18p.
abstract: We report on the association of a gastric carcinoma and a constitutional deletion of the short arm of chromosome 18 in a 14-year-old patient. The phenotype of the patient, including microcephaly, ptosis, micrognathia, tetralogy of Fallot, and mental retardation, fits well with previously reported cases of del(18p); she also showed a positive serology against Helicobacter pylori. The comparison of the alleles of polymorphic loci located on the short arm of chromosome 18 between the patient and her parents showed a maternal origin of the abnormal chromosome. Loss of heterozygosity (LOH) for loci located in the long arm of chromosome 18 is a frequent event in gastric carcinomas; it was observed in the tumoral mass of our patient and again, the alleles lost were of maternal origin. We postulate that the constitutional chromosomal abnormality may have favored the loss of the abnormal chromosome in some cells and that the loss of the deleted chromosome 18 (demonstrated by LOH for this chromosome in the tumoral mass) has been an early step in the pathogenesis of the gastric carcinoma of our patient with Helicobacter pylori infection acting as a cofactor.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Patologia Umana ed Ereditaria, Università di Pavia, Italy.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dellavecchia
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Guala
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Olivieri
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Haintink
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Cadario
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Luinetti
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fiocca
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Minelli
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Danesino
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bona
mesh_terms: D000015:Abnormalities, Multiple; D000293:Adolescent; D017668:Age of Onset; D002871:Chromosome Banding; D002887:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 18; D005260:Female; D017353:Gene Deletion; D005819:Genetic Markers; D006651:Histocytochemistry; D006801:Humans; D019656:Loss of Heterozygosity; D008297:Male; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats; D010375:Pedigree; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology
chemical_list: D005819:Genetic Markers