FREQUENT DELETION OF CHROMOSOME-19 AND A RARE REARRANGEMENT OF 19P13.3 INVOLVING THE INSULIN-RECEPTOR GENE IN HUMAN OVARIAN-CANCER

Human ovarian cancer cells usually have multiple specific chromosomal deletions which can be detected by cytogenetic analysis or molecular t echniques. Tumour suppressor genes might be located in these deleted c hromosomal segments. The importance of these different loci is usually estimated from the frequency with which they are deleted. Here we rep ort a 59% loss of heterozygosity for chromosome 19 in the DNA of human invasive epithelial ovarian cancer from a series of 37 patients. In a ll cases informative on both chromosomal arms a subchromosomal loss is observed, Analysis of the same tumours for chromosome 17p and 11p los s suggests that loss of chromosome 19p/q is less important than 17p lo ss, but more important than lip loss. The deletion of chromosome 19q s eems to be associated with distant, hematogeneous metastasis (stage TV ), In two patients with high grade tumours, the deletion involves a re arrangement of the insulin receptor locus (19p13.3), This suggests tha t some of the previously described frequent cytogenetic 19p(+) markers and 19p13.3 breaks observed in high grade ovarian cancers, might actu ally occur in the insulin receptor gene.