RECURRENT CYTOGENETIC ABERRATIONS IN HUMAN OVARIAN CARCINOMAS

Successful cytogenetic analysis was performed on short-term cultures o f 62 malignant ovarian tumors from 42 patients. Twenty-three tumors fr om 18 patients revealed clonal chromosome abnormalities. Five cases sh owed nonclonal chromosome changes. In the remaining 19 cases, a normal female karyotype was found. Numerical or single structural changes we re found in only 11 carcinomas from nine patients. Trisomy 12 and 7 we re each the sole abnormality in two cases a piece. One tumor showed a trisomy 6 as the only karyotypic change. Four tumors revealed simple t ranslocations and deletions affecting the chromosomes X, 1, 2, 6, and 7. Twelve of the cytogenetically abnormal tumor samples showed complex karyotypes with both numerical and structural aberrations leading to hyperdiploid, near-triploid, and near-tetraploid stemlines. The recurr ent numerical imbalances were losses of the chromosomes 1 (N = 5), X ( N = 3), and 17 (N = 3), and gains of the chromosomes 12 (N = 5) and 20 (N = 3). Regarding structural rearrangements, the chromosome bands 11 p13-14 and 19p13 were the most frequently affected regions. 11p13-14 w as rearranged in four tumors. In two cases, a deletion 11p13-14 was fo und. Two tumors revealed a nonreciprocal translocation involving 11p13 -14 and leading to the loss of distal 11p material. The most consisten t finding was a 19p + marker chromosome, which was present in five dif ferent ovarian carcinomas. Our results are in accordance with a recent cytogenetic report describing a 19p + marker and loss of 11p material as consistent cytogenetic aberrations in human ovarian carcinomas.