CYTOGENETIC CHARACTERIZATION OF WARTHINS TUMOR

Warthin's tumour is a peculiar subtype of monomorphic adenomas of the salivary glands, frequently cystic, and that characteristically associ ates an epithelial glandular cell, component to a dense lymphoid infil trate. Short-term cultures from 12 Warthin's tumours of salivary gland s, including 5 previously reported cases were successfully karyotyped and clonal numerical and/or structural changes were detected in 7 of t hem (58%). 3 cases showed numerical abnormalities with loss of chromos omes Y (2 cases) and X (1 case). The remaining 4 abnormal cases presen ted the following structural changes: complex translocation t(11;19;16 )(q21;p12;p13.3); reciprocal translocations t(6;8)(p23;q22) and t(6;15 )(p21;q15) (2 cases); and 1p22, 3p26, 11p13 changes. In 1 case, clonal numerical deviations (+7 and -Y) were concurrent with the structural rearrangement t(6;8). Two of these aberrations are suggested to be War thin's tumour-associated: 11q;19p translocation has already been descr ibed in 3 cases, and structural rearrangements of 6p23 have also been reported in another case. Our study extends the cytogenetic informatio n about Warthin's tumour and identifies two recurrent abnormalities - 6p rearrangements and t(11;19) - specific for this salivary neoplasm. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.