ALLELIC DELETIONS ON CHROMOSOME-17 AND MUTATIONS IN THE P53 GENE IN TUMORS METASTATIC TO BRAIN

Metastasis associated with tumor progression denotes more aggressive t umor behavior, more malignant histology, and worsening patient prognos is. Brain is one of the common sites to which solid tumors metastasize . Since mutations in the tumor suppressor gene p53 are associated with tumor progression to malignancy in various cancers, we examined the m olecular genetic profile of the p53 gene and also analyzed allelic los ses of various genes on the short arm of chromosome 17 (17p) in 10 met astatic brain tumors (4 breast, 3 renal, 1 lung, 1 esophageal, and 1 s quamous cell carcinoma) and in two of the primary tumors (I breast, 1 renal) corresponding to two of the 10 metastases. Six of the 10 metast atic tumors (4/4 breast, 1/1 esophageal and 1/1 squamous cell carcinom a) contained allelic loss and/or mutations of the p53 gene. The p53 ge ne profile was identical in both of the primary tumors and their corre sponding metastases that were examined. If borne out by a larger serie s of analysis on tumors, especially from breast, as well as from other organs, detection of chromosome 17/p53 alterations may be of substant ial clinical significance in predicting the metastatic potential of pr imary tumors.