Integration of somatic deletion analysis of prostate cancers and germline linkage analysis of prostate cancer families reveals two small consensus regions for prostate cancer genes at 8p.

The evidence for tumor suppressor genes at 8p is well supported by many somatic deletion studies and genetic linkage studies. However, it remains a challenge to pinpoint the tumor suppressor genes at 8p primarily because the implicated regions are broad. In this study, we attempted to narrow down the implicated regions by incorporating evidence from both somatic and germline studies. Using high-resolution Affymetrix arrays, we identified two small common deleted regions among 55 prostate tumors at 8p23.1 (9.8-11.5 Mb) and 8p21.3 (20.6-23.7 Mb). Interestingly, our fine mapping linkage analysis at 8p among 206 hereditary prostate cancer families also provided evidence for linkage at these two regions at 8p23.1 (5.8-11.2 Mb) and at 8p21.3 (19.6-23.9 Mb). More importantly, by combining the results from the somatic deletion analysis and genetic linkage analysis, we were able to further narrow the regions to approximately 1.4 Mb at 8p23.1 and approximately 3.1 Mb at 8p21.3. These smaller consensus regions may facilitate a more effective search for prostate cancer genes at 8p.