CYTOGENETIC AND FLOW CYTOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF A PANCREATOBLASTOMA

A pancreatoblastoma from a 4-year old male was examined by flow cytome tric ploidy analysis and cytogenetics. To detect differences within th e tumor, the specimen was divided into four portions and sampled separ ately. Flow analysis revealed that each sample contained a diploid and a tetraploid population of tumor cells. These findings correlated wel l with the cytogenetic analysis, which also revealed differences in st ructural rearrangements between samples. A t(13;22)(q10;q10) was the o nly rearrangement found in near-diploid cells as well as one near-tetr aploid line. Other common structural changes in near-tetraploid cells included t(13;13)(q10;q10), i(6p)(p10), and del(1). Chromosomes 1, 6, 13, and 22 were consistently missing from all near-tetraploid cells li nes. To our knowledge, this is the first flow cytometric and cytogenet ic study of a pancreatoblastoma.