Allele loss on chromosome 1p36 in epithelial ovarian cancers

Objectives. Prior studies have shown that allelic loss on chromosome 1p36 o ccurs frequently in ovarian as well as several other types of cancer. This suggests that inactivation of gene(s) in this region may play a role in the pathogenesis of these cancers. The aim of this study was to further deline ate the region of loss on chromosome 1p36 in ovarian cancers and to identif y associated patient or tumor characteristics. Methods. Paired normal/cancer DNA samples from 75 ovarian cancers (21 early stage I/II and 54 advanced stage III/IV) were analyzed using microsatellit e markers. Results, Forty-nine of 75 (65%) ovarian cancers had loss of at least one ma rker. The marker demonstrating the most frequent loss was D1S1597, which wa s lost in 29/57 (51%) informative cases. Allele loss on 1p36 was significan tly more common in poorly differentiated ovarian cancers (73%) relative to well or moderately differentiated cases (48%) (P = 0.03). Evidence was obta ined for two common regions of deletion: one flanked by D1S1646/D1S244 and another more proximally by D1S244/D1S228. Conclusion. These findings further delineate regions on chromosome 1p36 pro posed to contain tumor suppressor gene(s) that may play a role in the devel opment and/or progression of epithelial ovarian carcinoma. Allele loss on 1 p36 is associated with poor histologic grade. (C) 2001 Academic Press.