A REGION ON THE LONG ARM OF CHROMOSOME-16 IS FREQUENTLY DELETED IN METASTATIC NODE-NEGATIVE BREAST-CANCER

The aim of the present study was to define which region of chromosome 16q is most relevant for evaluation of the risk of metastatic recurren ce in human breast cancer cases that are lymph node-negative at the ti me of diagnosis. For this purpose we examined 36 cases of sporadic bre ast carcinoma subdivided into 3 groups: the first group: no metastatic progression after an average follow-up time of 15 years; including pa tients with and without lymph node metastases at the time of diagnosis ; the second group: N+ (node-positive) patients only, developed metast asis in five years from surgical excision. The last group was composed of patients who developed metastasis but were NO (node-negative) at d iagnosis. A statistically significant association was found between LO H (loss of heterozygosity) at 16q and metastatic progression of the ne oplastic disease. 16q LOH was identified as a new independent molecula r marker of progression for tumor NO at diagnosis.