EVALUATION OF FHIT GENE ALTERATIONS IN OVARIAN-CANCER

The FHIT gene, recently cloned and mapped on chromosome 3p14.2, has fr equently been found to be abnormal in several established cancer cell lines and primary tumours. As alterations of chromosome 3p are common events in ovarian cancers with breakpoint sites at 3p14.2, we decided to investigate the role of FHIT in human ovarian tumorigenesis. Fifty- four primary ovarian carcinomas were studied by reverse transcription of FHIT mRNA followed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification and sequencing of products, The same tumours and matched normal tissu es were also investigated for loss of heterozygosity using three micro satellite markers located inside the gene. We found an abnormal transc ript of the FHIT gene in two cases (4%) and allelic losses in eight ca ses (15%). Twelve (22%) of the 54 tumours investigated belonged to you ng patients with a family history of breast/ovarian cancer. In none of these cases was the FHIT gene found to be altered. Our results indica te that FHIT plays a role in a small proportion of ovarian carcinomas.