Recurrent allelic deletions of chromosome arms 15q and 16q in human small cell lung carcinomas

The genetic lesions that lead to the development of small cell lung carcino ma (SCLC) remain incompletely defined. To identify recurrent allelic deleti ons in specific chromosomal regions that could serve as markers for tumor s uppressor gene (TSG) inactivation in SCLC, we performed a comprehensive all elotype analysis of all 39 nonacrocentric autosomal arms. Alterations in 15 8 polymorphic microsatellite alleles were examined in 24 pails of human SCL C tumor and normal control DNA samples. A total of 2,107 informative reacti ons were analyzed. This analysis revealed allelic losses of 100% on chromos ome arm 3p, >85% loss within chromosome arms 13q and 17p, and >70% loss wit hin chromosome arms 4q, 5q, 15q, and I bq. The allelic deletions on chromos ome arms 15q and 16q have not been defined previously for SCLC and are cand idate regions to harbor novel TSGs. (C) 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.