MOLECULAR CYTOGENETIC ANALYSIS OF FORMALIN-FIXED, PARAFFIN-EMBEDDED SOLID TUMORS BY COMPARATIVE GENOMIC HYBRIDIZATION AFTER UNIVERSAL DNA-AMPLIFICATION

We present a technique which allows the detection and chromosomal loca lization of DNA sequence copy number changes in solid tumor genomes fr om frozen sections and paraffin embedded, formalin fixed specimens. Ba sed on comparative genomic hybridization and on universal DNA amplific ation procedures this technique is possible even if only a few tumor c ells are available. We demonstrate the feasibility of this method to v isualize complete and partial chromosome gains and losses and gene amp lifications in archived solid tumor samples.