ALLELIC LOSS ON CHROMOSOMES 8P, 22Q AND 18Q (DCC) IN HUMAN PROSTATE-CANCER

Previous studies have suggested the involvement of tumour-suppressor g enes on chromosomes 8p, 22q and 18q (DCC) in prostate cancer. The aim of this study was to further characterize these regions. We investigat ed 20 polymorphic regions on the 3 chromosome arms in 43 cancers and 1 0 cases of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). Allelic loss was observ ed in 72% of cancers on 8p, 16% on 22q and 24% at DCC. For BPH, loss w as observed in 20% on 8p and in 12% at DCC. The low incidence of LOH o n 22q implies that this locus has no significant role in prostate carc inogenesis. At DCC, although the overall incidence was low, tumours wi th LOH were mostly of high grade or had metastases, suggesting a role for this gene in prostate cancer progression. On chromosome 8p, 29% of cancers had deletions at the LPL locus on 8p22 and 60% had deletions within a region flanked by the markers D8S339 and ANK1 on 8p11.1-p21.1 . Within this region, 2 distinct areas of allelic loss were observed, at one or both ANK1 and D8S255, and in the region defined by the marke rs D8S259-D8S505. For the regions 8p22 and ANK1-D8S255, tumours with m etastases had a greater frequency of LOH compared to non-metastasizing tumours, suggesting the presence of putative metastasis-suppressor ge nes in these regions. (C) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.