SPORADIC AMPLIFICATION OF THE C-FMS PROTOONCOGENE IN HUMAN MUSCULOSKELETAL SARCOMAS

Fresh samples of bone and soft tissue sarcoma from 31 patients were an alyzed by the Southern. technique for amplification or other structura l abnormalities of the c-fms oncogene. As a sole finding, amplificatio n of the c-fms (4- and 10-fold) was detected in 2 of 3 cases with a hi stologic diagnosis of liposarcoma. RFLP analysis desclosed no gene rea rrangements associated with the c-fms amplification. The case with the highest amplification of the c-fms gene was disease-free at review. T he 2 fms-amplified liposarcomas were aneuploid according to DNA flow c ytometry. This is the first study demonstrating amplification of the c -fms proto-oncogene in human liposarcoma. The fact that this structura l abnormality of the c-fms gene was only detected in liposarcomas migh t point to an uncommon but tissue-specific phenomenon.