CYTOGENETIC ANALYSIS OF 52 COLORECTAL CARCINOMAS - NONRANDOM ABERRATION PATTERN AND CORRELATION WITH PATHOLOGICAL PARAMETERS

Cytogenetic analysis of short-term cultures from 52 colorectal carcino mas revealed a normal karyotype in 13 and clonal chromosome aberration s in 39 tumors. In the abnormal group, 13 tumors had simple numerical changes only, whereas 26 had at least one structural rearrangement wit h or without concomitant numerical changes. The most common numerical abnormalities were, in order of decreasing frequency, +7, - 18, -Y, +8 , +13 and -14. The most common structural rearrangements affected, aga in in order of decreasing frequency, chromosomes 8, 1, 6, 7, 17, 3, 11 , 13, 14, 16, 2 and 10. The chromosome bands most frequently involved in the structural changes were 8q10, 17p11, 11q13, 8p11, 6q21, 7p15, 7 q36, 12q13, 13q10, and 16q13. The most frequent genomic imbalances bro ught about by the structural rearrangements were losses from chromosom e arms 8p, 1p, 6q, 17p, 7p, and 16q, as well as gains of 7q, 8q, 13q, and 11q. A statistically significant (p < 0.05) correlation between th e karyotypic pattern and tumor grade was found, with the poorly differ entiated carcinomas generally having more massive chromosomal abnormal ities. (C) 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.