Chromosomal lesions and solid tumors

Numerical chromosome abnormalities associated with early clinical stages of gynecologic tumors

Cytogenetic data are presented for 12 ovarian, three endometrial, and one fallopian tube tumors. In 15 of these, primary tumors were analyzed and in one ascites was studied. All specimens were obtained at the time of diagnostic surgery. Trisomy for chromosome 7 was detected in three ovarian and one endometrial tumors. In one case, trisomy 7 was the sole cytogenetic abnormality detected. Three of the four patients with trisomy 7 had early stages of adenocarcinoma. The data suggest that numerical chromosome abnormalities may be common in borderline and in less aggressive gynecologic tumors.

Cytogenetic study of four cancers of the prostate

We cytogenetically studied four cases of adenocarcinoma of the prostate. All tumors were moderately differentiated or well-differentiated, with different degrees of invasion. One tumor with microscopic seminal vesicle invasion and lymph node metastasis (tumor 4) had trisomy 7 as a sole clonal abnormality, suggesting that this is a primary change in some prostatic tumors. Although only normal karyotypes were observed in the other three tumors, several nonclonal changes were evident. Monosomy 9 or deletion of the long arm of 9 was observed in at least one cell in the three tumors without trisomy 7. Furthermore, in one of these tumors (tumor 3, moderately differentiated), several rearrangements (five of 26 cells) were observed, two of which had a common breakpoint at 15q11. Although complex chromosome changes including del(10q) and del(7q) have been described in prostatic tumors, they were not observed in the four tumors studied. This is the first report of a prostate tumor with trisomy 7 as a single clonal chromosome abnormality.

Phenotypic and cytogenetic characterization of a cell line derived from primary prostatic carcinoma

A new cell line, PPC-I, has been established from a specimen obtained from a patient with a poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma of the prostate. This is the first line of its type derived from a primary prostatic tumor site. PPC-I cells have become immortalized in culture, exhibit transformation parameters including relaxed growth factor requirements and anchorage-independent growth, and are highly tumorigenic in nude mice. Cytogenetic studies by G-banding revealed a grossly abnormal karyotype, with a modal chromosome number of 84, multiple marker chromosomes including both homogeneously staining regions and double minutes and clonal loss of chromosomes 3, 5, 10, 15 and Y.