Allelotype of human breast carcinoma: a second major site for loss of heterozygosity is on chromosome 6q.

Loss of heterozygosity (LOH), which is detected with polymorphic DNA markers by comparing constitutional and tumor genotypes, has been observed at a number of different chromosome arms in primary breast tumors. These include 1p, 1q, 3p, 11p, 13q, 17p and 18q. We present here the results of a screening of all non-acrocentric chromosome arms, including those of the X chromosome, with at least one polymorphic marker per arm, in a total of 86 breast carcinomas. This dataset, termed an allelotype, indicates that in addition to the chromosome regions listed above, allelic loss may be observed in more than 30% of informative cases on 6q, 8q, 9q, 15q, and 16q. Multiple LOH involving at least two different chromosomes in a single tumor was observed in approximately 75% of the investigated tumors, and revealed complex chromosome involvement. Six different combinations of concurrent LOH at two different chromosome arms were found to be significantly correlated (r greater than 0.45; P less than 0.01). Tumors showing LOH at 3p or 17p were preferentially aneuploid, while LOH at 6q and 17q was inversely correlated with the number of positive lymph nodes and age respectively.