HOMOZYGOUS AND FREQUENT DELETION OF PROXIMAL 8P SEQUENCES IN HUMAN PROSTATE CANCERS - IDENTIFICATION OF A POTENTIAL TUMOR-SUPPRESSOR GENE SITE

By using tissue microdissection and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) te chniques, we examined 85 prostate tumors that were paired with normal tissues from the same patients for allelic loss at 26 highly polymorph ic microsatellite sequences, 21 spanning 8p and 5 localized to 8q, Six ty-four tumors (75%) demonstrated loss of at least one 8p locus. Separ ate distal and proximal regions of deletion were observed as well as a n intervening, staggered breakpoint. A novel region of homozygous dele tion of sequences at the D8S87 locus was detected both by multiplex PC R and by fluorescence in situ hybridization within this breakpoint reg ion. These data suggest that a tumor-suppressor gene mapping to proxim al 8p is deleted frequently and is likely to be important for tumorige nesis in prostate tumors. Genes Chromosomes Cancer 23:255-262, 1998. ( C) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.