FREQUENT LOSS OF HETEROZYGOSITY ON CHROMOSOME-22 IN HEPATOCELLULAR-CARCINOMA

We investigated 24 hepatocellular carcinomas in Japan to find loss of heterozygosity with 15 polymorphic DNA markers that detect allelic los ses at specific chromosome loci. Loss of heterozygosity on chromosomes 10q, 17p and 22q was detected in 3 of 12 (25%), 9 of 21 (43%) and 5 o f 15 (33%) informative cases of hepatocellular carcinoma, respectively . This is the first report of loss of heterozygosity on chromosome 22q in hepatocellular carcinoma; the newly recognized common chromosome l oss was considered to exist between D22S9 and D22S10 on 22q11. On the basis of this and other studies, we believe it is likely that such a c hromosome loss in hepatocellular carcinoma is a signal for malignant t ransformation and that loss of unknown genes on chromosomes 10q, 17p a nd 22q may contribute to tumor progression in hepatocellular carcinoma .