MICROSATELLITE INSTABILITY OCCURS INFREQUENTLY IN SPORADIC RENAL-CELLCARCINOMA

Forty-nine sporadic renal cell carcinomas were screened for instabilit y at nine different microsatellite loci. Three tumors (6.1%) showed al terations at more than one locus. One chromophobe-cell renal carcinoma showed microsatellite instability at 3 loci and was considered to exh ibit a replication error-positive phenotype. Two of the tumors with cl ear-cell histology showed minor alterations at one of the nine loci ex amined, These data indicate that microsatellite instability occurs inf requently in sporadic RCC and that the mutator phenotype may be involv ed in rare instances such as the chromophobe-cell carcinoma.