R. Baffa et al., Definition and refinement of chromosome 8p regions of loss of heterozygosity in gastric cancer, CLIN CANC R, 6(4), 2000, pp. 1372-1377
Loss of heterozygosity at several chromosomal loci is a common feature of t
he malignant progression of human tumors. These regions are thought to harb
or one or more putative tumor suppressor gene(s) playing a role in tumor de
velopment. Allelic losses on the short arm of chromosome 8 (8p) have been r
eported as frequent events in several cancers? and three commonly deleted r
egions have been defined at 8p11.2-12, 8p21-22, and 8p23.1. To evaluate the
possible involvement of these regions in gastric cancer, me used eight mic
rosatellite markers to perform an extensive analysis of allele loss at 8p21
-22 in 52 cases of primary gastric adenocarcinoma. We found that 44% of tum
ors showed allelic loss for at least one marker at 8p21-22. The critical re
gion of loss was found to be between markers LPL and D8S258, which displaye
d loss of heterozygosity in 39% and 33% of cases, respectively. This region
is centromeric to the LPL locus and centered on the D8S258 locus. We concl
ude that 8p22 deletion is a frequent event in gastric cancer and suggest th
e presence of a putative tumor suppressor gene near the D8S258 locus. Initi
al steps mere taken toward the identification of this gene, which is likely
to play an important role in the pathogenesis of gastric cancer and of oth
er tumors as well.