Coordinate deletion of chromosome 3p and 11q in neuroblastoma detected by comparative genomic hybridization

Neuroblastoma, the most common extracranial solid tumor of childhood, is as sociated with a number of genetic abnormalities that are prognostically sig nificant. The most common abnormalities are associated with aggressive clin ical behavior and include deletion of distal chromosome 1p, NMYC amplificat ion, and unbalanced gain of the long arm of chromosome 17. There are also o ther recurrent, but less frequent abnormalities, the clinical significance of which is uncertain. These less common abnormalities include deletion 3p, 11q, and 14q. To gain further clinical insight into some of the less commo nly observed abnormalities in neuroblastoma, we performed comparative genom ic hybridization (CCH) analysis on 24 primary and metastatic neuroblastomas (6 stage 2, 5 stage 3, 11 stage 4, and 2 stage 4). Nineteen of these tumor s were prechemotherapy. A fetal of 190 abnormalities were detected from the se tumors. Four of the 24 tumors studied showed loss of 11q material wish 3 of these tumors also possessing distal chromosome 3p deletions. Our result s provide confirmation that deletion of chromosome 3p is nonrandomly associ ated with deletion of chromosome 11q in neuroblastoma. However, analysis of our results, along with other results reported in the literature, indicate that there is no statistically significant association between 3p and 11q loss and more clinically aggressive tumors. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.