Translocation and coamplification of loci from chromosome arms 8p and 11q in the MDA-MB-175 mammary carcinoma cell line

Rearrangement and coamplification of the 8p12 and 11q13 chromosomal regions occurs in a significant proportion of breast cancers. It usually involves a complex hybrid structure in which the FGFR1 and CCND1 genes are amplified . We report here a different type of 8p12-11q13 rearrangement in the MDA-MB -175 mammary carcinoma cell line. This amplification contains the NRG1/HGL (from 8p12-21) and DOC4 (from 11q13) genes, encoding respectively a ligand for ERBB receptors and a stress-induced protein which is a mammalian orthol og of Drosophila Tenm/Odz. It has been shown previously (Wang ed al, Oncoge ne 18: 5718-5721,1999) that these two genes are rearranged and fused by a t ranslocation event. This type of event was not found in 30 tumors tested th at showed coamplification of the 8p12 and 11q13 regions.