Loss of heterozygosity at 8p, 9p and 17q in laryngeal cytological specimens

The activation of oncogenes and the inactivation of tumour suppresser genes play a critical role in laryngeal tumorigenesis. Recent investigations rev ealed that 8p, 9p and 17q arms of human chromosomes harbour tumour suppress or genes (TSGs) such as p16 and BRCA1 with an important role in the multist age carcinogenesis of the larynx. In order to investigate the implication o f these novel TSGs in the development of laryngeal neoplasia we performed a loss of heterozygosity (LOH) analysis using a bank of 15 polymorphic micro satellite markers (4 at 8p21, 7 at 9p21 arm and 3 at 17q arm surrounding th e BRCA1 region) in a series of 32 cytological specimens (19 squamous cell c arcinoma, 13 benign lesions of the larynx). Both benign and malignant speci mens exhibited genetic alterations with at least one microsatellite marker. Fifteen (47%) out of the 32 specimens exhibited LOH at 8p21, 25/32 (78%) s howed LOH at 9p21 and 18/32 (56%) displayed LOH at 17q21. Genetic alteratio ns were detected in both benign and malignant lesions for all the loci test ed suggesting an important role of these regions in the development of lary ngeal neoplasia. This is the first report of detection of microsatellite al terations not only in solid rumours of the larynx but in laryngeal cytologi cal specimens, suggesting that microsatellite analysis may be a useful tool in the primary diagnosis of the disease. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. Al l rights reserved.