RECURRENT CHROMOSOMAL-ABNORMALITIES IN HEPATOCELLULAR-CARCINOMA DETECTED BY COMPARATIVE GENOMIC HYBRIDIZATION

Comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) was used to evaluate and map g enomic aberrations in 50 hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs) from patient s chronically infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV). CGH clearly detec ted nonrandom genomic imbalances. Losses were most prevalent on chromo some regions 4q (70%), 8p (65%), 16q (54%), 17p (51%), 13q and 6q (37% each), and 1p (30%). The most frequent gains occurred on 8q (60%), 1q (58%), and 6p and 17q (33% each). In a few cases, sequence amplificat ions were detected that were mapped to bands 11q12, 12p11, 14q12, and 19q13.1. This study represents the first analysis of primary liver can cers by CGH, and it confirms the presence of previously known chromoso mal aberrations in HCC and highlights new quantitative abnormalities a nd sequence amplifications. These findings should lead to the characte rization of new loci involved in liver cancer pathogenesis. (C) 1997 W iley-Liss, Inc.