THE USE OF EXFOLIATIVE CELL SAMPLES TO MAP CLONAL GENETIC ALTERATIONSIN THE ORAL EPITHELIUM OF HIGH-RISK PATIENTS

Although it is widely accepted that clonal genetic alterations are an essential component of tumor progression, little is known of the distr ibution of such changes in high-risk lesions or how such clones are al tered over time, We explored the feasibility of using exfoliative cell s collected hy scraping the mucosal surface to detect allelic loss in oral lesions of 22 patients (II squamous cell carcinomas, 2 carcinomas in situ, and 6 dysplasias), The data show that the patterns of alleli c loss observed in these samples closely represent those observed in b iopsies of the same region, Furthermore, early indications are that th is approach can be used to detect recurrent outgrowth of clones of alt ered cells in patients after therapy.