Chromosomal imbalances are associated with a high risk of progression in early invasive (pT(1)) urinary bladder cancer

Many cytogenetic alterations are known to occur in urinary bladder cancer, but the significance of most of them is poorly understood. To define these chromosomal regions where clinically relevant genes may be located, a serie s of 54 pT(1) urinary bladder carcinomas with clinical follow-up informatio n (median, 52 months; range, 5-167 months) were examined by comparative gen omic hybridization. The most frequent alterations included DNA sequence cop y number gains at 1q22-24 (33%), 20q11.2-ter (33%), 8q22 and 17q21 (28% eac h), and 6p22 (15%) as well as deletions at Y (37%), 9p (31%), 9q22-33 and 1 1p14-ter (28% each), 11q23 (26%), 8p (24%), 13q31 (19%), 2q35-ter (17%), an d 2q22-33 (11%), Whereas the histological grade was unrelated to prognosis (P = 0.9752), the risk of tumor progression was significantly associated wi th the number of deletions per tumor (P = 0.0014), Individual cytogenetic a lterations that were Linked to subsequent tumor progression included gains of 3p22-24 (P = 0.0112) and 5p (P = 0.0003) as well as losses of 4p11-15 (P = 0.0052), 5q15-23 (P = 0.0410), 6q22-23 (P = 0.0090), 10q24-26 (P = 0.023 2), and 18q12-23 (P = 0.0005), Genes with a role for bladder cancer progres sion may be located at these regions.