Comparative genomic hybridization detects losses of chromosomes 22 and 16 as the most common recurrent genetic alterations in primary ependymomas.

In this study, we used comparative genomic hybridization to provide an overview of chromosomal imbalances in a series of 20 adult and 8 childhood ependymomas. All tumors displayed multiple genomic imbalances. Loss of genetic material was observed in chromosomes 22q (71%), 16 (57%), 17 (46%), 6 (39%), 19q (32%), 20q (32%), and 1p (29%), with the overlapped deletion regions determined at 16p13.1-13.3, 16q22-q24, 19q13.1-13.4, 20q13.1-13.2 and 1p36.1-36.3. Gain of DNA was commonly detected on chromosomes 5q (46%), 12q (39%), 7q (36%), 9q (36%), and 4q (32%), with overlapped regions of gain mapped to 5q21-22, 12q15-24.1, 7q11.2-31.2, 9q12-32, and 4q23-28, respectively. These findings suggest a greater degree of genomic imbalance in ependymomas than has been recognized previously and highlight chromosomal loci likely to contain oncogenes or tumor suppressor genes that may contribute to the molecular pathogenesis of this tumor. Our study also confirmed previous findings on frequent losses of 17 and 22q in ependymomas and further identified chromosome 16 loss as a common recurrent genetic aberration in ependymomas.