Genomic instability in the progression of sporadic nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
OBJECTIVE
Genomic instability reflecting the susceptibility of the genome to acquire multiple genetic alterations plays a major role in tumorigenesis and tumor progression. We evaluated the prognostic significance of the extent of genomic instability in nasopharyngeal carcinoma.


METHODS
Genomic instability was assessed by inter-simple sequence repeats polymerase chain reaction (inter-SSR PCR) in 38 patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Characterization and verification of band alterations shared in different tumors were carried out by sequencing and nest PCR.


RESULTS
31 (81.6%) of 38 patients showed genomic alterations, and genomic instability index ranged from 0 to 16.2%. A gain-based genomic damage shared in 6 tumors was identified on chromosome 6q27, a new mutator phenotype in nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Significantly more genomic alteration was found in patients without 5-year survival than that with 5-year survival (P<0.05), suggesting that higher genomic instability predicts a poor prognosis in nasopharyngeal carcinoma.


CONCLUSIONS
Our data suggests that genomic instability can be an early event marker in carcinogenesis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Also, aggravation of genomic alterations is a poor prognosis for cancer recovery.
Tan
Guolin
G
Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Third XiangYa Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan 410013, China. guolintan@xysm.net
Chu
Yumin
Y
Chen
Jiangbo
J
Li
Heqing
H
D002277:Carcinoma / Q000235:genetics* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D002893:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 3 / Q000235:genetics; D002896:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 6 / Q000235:genetics; D042822:Genomic Instability / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D009303:Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D015996:Survival Rate