MICROSATELLITE INSTABILITY AND DELETION ANALYSIS OF CHROMOSOME-10 IN HUMAN PROSTATE-CANCER

Despite the clinical relevance of prostate cancer, few aspects regardi ng the molecular alterations involved in the process of prostate carci nogenesis are clearly understood. Cytogenetic and molecular genetic st udies have identified specific abnormalities in prostate tumors, mainl y on chromosomes 8, 10 and 16. On the basis of these findings, we desi gned a study to further characterize the altered regions on chromosome 10, using 15 microsatellite markers on a population composed of 20 pa ired normal and primary non-metastatic prostatic-tumor samples. Overal l, 65% (13/20) of the cases analyzed showed molecular alterations, mai nly rearrangements and deletions. The locus presenting the highest rat e of abnormalities was D10S221, which maps to 10q23-q24. Another regio n with frequent alterations was 10q21, at the D10S109 locus. There was no statistical association between microsatellite abnormalities and G leason grade or tumor stage in the prostate cancer cases studied. Thes e results suggest that microsatellite alterations on the long arm of c hromosome 10 are non-random events occurring in prostate cancer and th at they may play a role in the process of tumorigenesis in these neopl asms. (C) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.