LOW INCIDENCE OF A NUCLEOTIDE-SEQUENCE ALTERATION OF THE NEUROFIBROMATOSIS-2 GENE IN HUMAN BREAST CANCERS

We investigated aberrations of the neurofibromatosis type 2 (NF2) gene in breast tumors of 60 patients by single strand conformation polymor phism analysis of polymerase chain reaction products followed by nucle otide sequencing. We detected a tumor-specific single-base substitutio n in codon 398 in exon 12 of the gene, resulting in an alteration of a single amino acid, in DNA from a breast cancer sample. The results in dicated possible but infrequent involvement of mutations of the tumor suppressor NF2 gene in human breast cancers.