Trisomy and tetrasomy for long arm of chromosome 1 in near-diploid human endometrial adenocarcinomas.

Karyotypic analysis by R-banding after short-term culture, carried out on 7 cases of human endometrial adenocarcinoma, showed in 4 of these a trisomy or a tetrasomy for the long arm of chromosome I. In the 4 cases, these imbalances were due to rearrangements involving centromeric or para-centromeric break-points: 46,XX,-16, +der(1q16p) t(1;16)(1p16q;1q16p); 46,XX,-21, +der (1q21q)t(1;21) (1p21p;1q21q); 46,XX, -21, +der(21) t(1;21)(q11;p13); 48, XX, +2, +i(1q). Two other cases showed only a numerical aberration: 47, XX, +10 and 47, XX, +12. In the last case, only cells with apparently normal karyotype were seen. In the 4 cases with an anomaly of chromosome I, two normal I chromosomes coexisted with abnormal elements. This shows that the rearrangement very likely occurred in G2 phase of the cell cycle.