FREQUENT LOSS OF HETEROZYGOSITY IN THE REGION OF THE D7S523 LOCUS IN ADVANCED OVARIAN-CANCER

Loss of heterozygosity (LOH) of the long arm of chromosome 7 occurs fr equently in many types of primary cancers. We analyzed 22 primary ovar ian cancers for LOH of chromosome arm 7q using a set of 16 microsatell ite markers in order to determine the location of a putative tumor sup pressor gene (TSG). Eleven samples (50%) showed LOH at least at one lo cus on chromosome arm 7q. We identified the smallest commonly deleted region to be at 7q31.1, which includes D7S523. LOH of chromosome arm 7 q was more frequent in advanced stages (III-IV) (7/9, 78%) than in ear ly stages (I-II) (4/13, 31%) of ovarian cancer (P<0.05). These data su ggest that alteration of a TSG at 7q31.1 gene plays an important role in advanced ovarian Cancer. (C) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.