LOCALIZATION OF A TUMOR-SUPPRESSOR GENE ASSOCIATED WITH HUMAN ORAL-CANCER ON 7Q31.1

To search for the existence of a tumour-suppressor gene (TSG) associat ed with oral squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), PCR analysis of microsatel lite polymorphisms corresponding to 14 loci which map to chromosome 7q 21.3-qter was performed to screen 35 patients with oral SCC for loss o f heterozygosity (LOH). LOH was observed in at least one of the loci i n 19 of 34 (55.9%) informative cases, Among the loci tested, frequent LOH was restricted at D7S522 on chromosome 7q3 1.1, which was measured within 1 cM. Furthermore, we detected microsatellite instability (MI) in 11 of 35 (31.4%) cases tested. Our observations indicate that alte rations of chromosome 7q are associated with oral SCC tumorigenesis an d that 7q3 1.1 might harbour at least one putative TSG. (C) 1998 Wiley -Liss, Inc.