LOSS OF HETEROZYGOSITY AT 11Q22 CORRELATES WITH LOW PROGESTERONE-RECEPTOR CONTENT IN EPITHELIAL OVARIAN-CANCER

Forty-seven epithelial ovarian cancers were analyzed for loss of heter ozygosity (LOH) at D11S35 (11q22), close to the progesterone receptor (PR) gene, and for tumoral estrogen receptor (ER) and PR content, Thir ty-eight of 47 tumors were informative, and, of these, 14 exhibited LO H, There was a significant association (P = 0.014) between D11S35 LOH and; low tumoral PR content, For all informative tumors, there was no correlation between ER and PR; however, exclusion of tumors with LOH f rom the informative series revealed a linear correlation between tumor al ER and PR (P = 0.013), and established ER (P = 0.025) and PR (P = 0 .05) content as significant factors in relation to patient survival, P atients with ER-rich tumors with D11S35 LOH had particularly poor surv ival compared with ER-rich, D11S35 heterozygous, no loss patients (P = 0.014). Analysis of the same tumors using two other microsatellites, D11S35 (11p13) and NM23 (17q22), showed no statistically significant r elationships, although there were nonsignificant trends for the correl ation of ER and PR expression in informative tumors without allele los s at these loci. We propose that genomic structural alteration at or c lose to the PR gene locus has biological and clinical sequelae in ovar ian cancer.