Comparison of comparative genomic hybridization and interphase fluorescence in situ hybridization in ovarian carcinomas: possibilities and limitations of both techniques

Comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) is a valuable technique for cytogen etic analysis of solid tumors. To evaluate the reliability of CGH, we exami ned DNA of 10 ovarian carcinomas after CGH analysis with single- and double -locus fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). The FISH experiments, inv olving 5 chromosomes (chromosomes 3, 6, 8, 12, and 18) with different FISH probes, confirmed the CGH results in 66.2% of cases (92 of 139 investigated loci). In 4 patients, inconsistent results (41 loci) were related to polyp loidy, because CGH cannot detect polyploid karyotypes. The remaining 6 disc ordant loci can be referred to limitations in both techniques. Re-evaluatio n of FISH and CGH results by one other is therefore recommended to overcome these technical artifacts. Nevertheless, CGH is of potential value in char acterizing chromosomal alterations and might help in generating tumor-speci fic sets of FISH probes to obtain genetic information of prognostic value w ithin a few days. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.