MOLECULAR ANALYSIS OF EWINGS-SARCOMA - ANOTHER FUSION GENE, EWS-E1AF,AVAILABLE FOR DIAGNOSIS

Ewing's sarcoma, one of the most malignant tumors of children and youn g adults, expresses specific chimeric genes, e.g. EWS-FL1-1, EWS-ERG, EWS-ETV1 and EWS-FEV. In this paper, we extensively characterized a ne w fusion gene, EWS-E1AF by means of whole cDNA sequencing, RNA blot an alysis, DNA blot analysis and chromosomal analysis, and showed it to b e available for the diagnosis of Ewing's sarcoma and to participate in the oncogenesis of Ewing's sarcoma, Furthermore, we conducted a genet ic analysis of Ewing family tumors in conjuction with immunohistochemi cal analysis and ultrastructural analysis. Our results demonstrate som e limitations of both genetic analysis and histopathological analysis, and establish the relationship between neurogenic phenotypes and chim era genes.