Identification and pine mapping of a region showing a high frequency of allelic imbalance on chromosome 16q23.2 that corresponds to a prostate cancersusceptibility locus

Linkage to a prostate cancer susceptibility locus was recently reported on chromosome 16q23, We now report a region exhibiting a high frequency of all ellic imbalance (AI) corresponding to this locus in tumors From 51 men diag nosed with prostate cancer using the same linked markers. The highest frequ ency of AI was found at markers D16S3096 (45%) and D16S516 (53%) that map t o chromosome 16q23.2, In addition, 19 of the 51 (37%) prostate tumors showe d interstitial AI involving one or both of these markers. This result stron gly suggests that a candidate prostate cancer tumor suppressor gene maps be tween markers D16S3096 and D16S516, We estimate that the distance between t hese markers is approximately 118 kb using a Stanford radiation hybrid pane l. We observed a positive association with family history (P = 0.018) when comparing those men showing interstitial Al at markers D16S3096 and/or D16S 516 with those without any imbalance at these two markers, Taken together, these data suggest that we have precisely localized a region of chromosome 16q23.2 that may harbor a prostate cancer tumor suppressor gene implicated in the development of non-familial and possibly familial forms of prostate cancer.