Microsatellite instability in gastric MALT lymphomas and other associated neoplasms.
BACKGROUND
Microsatellite instability (MSI), caused by a reduced efficacy of the DNA mismatch repair (MMR) machinery, represents a type of genomic instability frequently detected in HNPCC spectrum cancers and in a subset of sporadic carcinomas. The involvement of MSI in the pathogenesis of gastric lymphoma of mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) has never been conclusively investigated. In this study, we tested the presence of MSI in tumor samples of patients harboring both MALT lymphomas and other types of malignancies.


METHODS
We examined 10 microsatellite loci (D3S11, D3S1261, D3S1265, D6S262, D6S193, BAT-26, BAT-25, D17S250, APC, D2S123) out of a total of 34 primary tumors from 14 patients with MALT lymphomas and one or more additional neoplasms. The patients' MSI results were also tested for an association with a positive family history of cancer.


RESULTS
MSI, defined by the presence of microsatellite alterations in more than 40% of the examined loci, was scored negative in all tumors studied, and pedigree analysis failed to identify any condition of familial cancer among the patients examined.


CONCLUSIONS
The present study suggests that defects in DNA mismatch repair do not contribute significantly to the molecular pathogenesis of MALT lymphomas and associated neoplasms.
Furlan
D
D
Dipartimento di Scienze Cliniche e Biologiche, Università dell'Insubria, Varese, Italy.
Bertoni
F
F
Cerutti
R
R
Taborelli
M
M
Pinotti
G
G
Roggero
E
E
Cavalli
F
F
Bonato
M
M
Zucca
E
E
Capella
C
C
D003123:Colorectal Neoplasms, Hereditary Nonpolyposis / Q000235:genetics; D004260:DNA Repair / Q000235:genetics; D004273:DNA, Neoplasm / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D018442:Lymphoma, B-Cell, Marginal Zone / Q000235:genetics*; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats; D009378:Neoplasms, Multiple Primary / Q000235:genetics*; D010375:Pedigree; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics*
D004273:DNA, Neoplasm