LOSS OF HETEROZYGOSITY OF CHROMOSOME 3P SEQUENCES IS AN INFREQUENT EVENT IN ENDOMETRIAL CANCER

The genetic events associated with endometrial cancer are at present p oorly understood, Frequent loss of heterozygosity (LOH) in a particula r chromosomal region is often indicative of the involvement of a tumor suppressor gene. Previous studies are in disagreement over the involv ement of a tumor suppressor gene(s) on the short arm of chromosome 3 i n endometrial tumorigenesis. A set of 75 endometrial carcinomas was ex amined for the presence of LOH using 10 microsatellite repeat polymorp hisms which are localized to chromosome 3p. In addition, these tumors were examined for the presence of replication errors (RER). Eleven of the 64 RER-negative tumors (17.2%) displayed LOH at one or more loci o n chromosome 3p. The highest frequency of LOH at a single marker was 1 0.8% (4/37) at the locus D3S1312, The tumors investigated did not sugg est that there was any common region of deletion, There was a signific ant increase in the frequency of 3p LOH in high-grade versus low-grade endometrioid adenocarcinomas (P < 0.05). Our results indicate that it is unlikely that a tumor suppressor gene on the short arm of chromoso me 3 plays a major role in endometrial tumorigenesis. (C) 1996 Academi c Press, Inc.