COMPARATIVE GENOMIC HYBRIDIZATION OF ESOPHAGEAL AND GASTROESOPHAGEAL ADENOCARCINOMAS SHOWS CONSENSUS AREAS OF DNA GAIN AND LOSS

Relatively little is known about the genetic changes that occur in eso phageal and gastroesophageal adenocarcinomas. To provide a survey of r elative DNA gains and losses in these cancers, we microdissected 15 pr imary human esophageal and gastroesophageal adenocarcinomas to enrich for cancer cells and subsequently performed comparative genomic hybrid ization. Eighteen regions of high-level amplification were detected in I I tumors, with 8p23, 17q21, and 18p11 showing four, three, and two such events, respectively. The most common minimal regions of gain wer e 8q24 (8/ 15), 209 (7/15), 17q21 (7/15), and 7p11-15 (7/15). The most common minimal regions of loss were 5q 12-21 (8/15), 4q10-24 (5/15), 4p (5/15), and 18q (3/ 15). These results implicate the well-character ized oncogenes MYC(8q24) and ERBB2 (17q2 I), and they predict the invo lvement of additional oncogenes on 8p23, 20q, and chromosome 7 in the pathogenesis of these cancers. Chromosomes 4 and 5 are frequent target s of deletion in these tumors and may harbor novel tumor suppressor ge nes. (C) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.