LOSS OF HETEROZYGOSITY IN CLINICAL STAGE IB CERVICAL-CARCINOMA - RELATIONSHIP WITH CLINICAL AND HISTOPATHOLOGIC FEATURES

Loss of heterozygosity (LOH) has been shown to be an important prognos tic factor in a variety of malignant neoplasms. The relationship betwe en LOH and established histopathological prognostic factors in cervica l carcinoma has not been examined. We studied LOH in 58 FIGO stage IB cervical cancers treated by radical hysterectomy. In a randomly select ed subset of 37 of these cases, LOH was examined using markers for all 41 chromosomal arms. Seventy-six percent of the 58 cases and 95% of t he extensively studied cases showed LOH at one or more loci. The three most common sites of LOH were 3p21, 6p24-p23, and 11q23.3. In the ext ensively studied group, LOH on 11q was associated with extensive lymph vascular space invasion (P = .009) and less deeply invasive tumor (P = .042). There was a trend for tumors with LOH on 11q to recur, but thi s was not statistically significant. No correlation between the presen ce of LOH on 3p or 6p and lymphvascular space invasion or tumor depth was present. There was no correlation between the number of sites of o r between the presence of LOH on 3p, 6p, and 11q and the presence of m etastatic tumor in regional lymph nodes, histologic type (squamous v n onsquamous), tumor differentiation, maximum tumor size, degree of infl ammation, pattern of invasion, mitotic rate, or clinical recurrence. I n summary, tumors with 11q LOH may behave in a more aggressive fashion . Future studies of LOB in cervical carcinoma should include histopath ological prognostic information so that the relationship between LOH a nd these factors can be determined on larger numbers of patients. Copy right (C) 1998 by W.B. Saunders Company.