Cytogenetic analysis of short-term cultures from benign intestinal tum
ors revealed clonal chromosome aberrations in rive colorectal adenomas
, one adenoma of the papilla Vateri, and one hyperplastic polyp of the
rectum. One adenoma had numerical aberrations only, but in all other
tumors structural rearrangements were found that led to loss of geneti
c material from 1p. In three of the cases, the deletion was restricted
to the 1p36 band; the rest had lost larger 1p segments. The rearrange
ment of chromosome 1 was the sole karyotypic anomaly in three adenomas
, all with mild or moderate dysplasia, and in the hyperplastic polyp.
Both adenomas that had additional aberrations beyond the lp loss showe
d severe dysplasia. We conclude that cytogenetically detectable loss o
f genetic information from 1p36 is an early, seemingly primary, premal
ignant event in intestinal tumorigenesis. The fact that the adenomas w
ith 1p- as the sole change showed only mild or moderate dysplasia and
that the del(1p) was found also in the hyperplastic polyp suggests tha
t this aberration is more related to the induction of hyperproliferati
on than to differentiation disturbances in the intestinal mucosa.