title: Cytogenetic characterization of Ewing tumors with high-ploidy.
abstract: The formation of a high-ploidy is rare in Ewing tumor (ET) and is in contrast to some other childhood tumors such as neuroblastoma. In a series of 37 Ewing tumors analyzed by conventional cytogenetics, 4 of the 34 tumors with an abnormal clone (11.8%) demonstrated the presence of a high-ploidy clone, with a chromosome number that ranged from hypotriploid to pentaploid. All 4 contained a t(11;22)(q24;q12) and the karyotypes had further aberrations of the type that would be generally expected in ET. Numerical aberrations represented the majority of the karyotypic events identified and gain of chromosome 8 and loss of chromosomes 3, 10, 16, 19, and 22 occurred in at least 3 tumors. However, no single mechanism could be implicated to explain the karyotypic picture of the 4 cases. It is proposed that high-ploidy subgroups exist in ET and it would be potentially erroneous to group these and other cases together when determining their clinical implications.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, University Children's Hospital, Steinwiesstrasse 75, CH-8032 Zürich, Switzerland. david.betts@kispi.unizh.ch
authors.forename: David R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Betts
authors.forename: Pierino
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Avoledo
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: von der Weid
authors.forename: Jeanette
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Greiner
authors.forename: Felix K
authors.initials: FK
authors.lastname: Niggli
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001859:Bone Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics*; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007621:Karyotyping; D008297:Male; D011123:Polyploidy; D012512:Sarcoma, Ewing / Q000235:genetics*; D014178:Translocation, Genetic