Consistent deficiencies of chromosome 18 and of the short arm of chromosome 17 in eleven cases of human large bowel cancer: a possible recessive determinism.

Cytogenetic study of 11 cases of colorectal carcinoma was performed after R-banding. In all instances, there was a rearrangement involving chromosome 17 in its juxtacentromeric region, leading to the loss of its short arm. There was also a relative lack of chromosome 18, unrelated to a rearrangement of this chromosome in all but one case. Other anomalies, involving chromosomes 1 and 8 among others, were frequently but not systematically observed. The consistent lack of chromosome 18 and of the short arm of chromosome 17, leading to a complete or partial monosomy of these chromosomes in near diploid cells suggests that the passage to the hemizygous status of recessive genes carried by these chromosomes may play an important role in the development of colorectal carcinoma.