Delineation of the centromeric and telomeric chromosome segment 11p15.5 lung cancer suppressor regions LOH11A and LOH11B.

We have reported frequent allele loss for two separate regions identified by the markers D11S12 and HRAS on chromosome 11p15.5. D11S12 allele loss was associated with tumor stage and type and HRAS allele loss with cigarette consumption, sex, and survival. To positionally clone the putative tumor suppressor genes located in these regions, we here report a reduction in the size of these intervals to approximately 250 kb. The markers used, ordered from centromere to telomere, were D11S932 -D11S1331-D11S1760-D11S1323-D11S4891 (HBB)-D11S1758-D11S12-D11S988-D11S860-D11S131 8-TH-HRAS-D11S1363-D11S2071. We analyzed 44 tissue pairs from patients with primary lung cancer. The smallest common regions of allele loss were located between D11S1758 and D11S12 in the centromeric region of chromosome segment 11p15.5 (region of LOH on chromosome 11 in lung cancer, LOH11A) and between HRAS and D11S1363 in the telomeric region (region of LOH on chromosome 11 in lung cancer, LOH11B). Loss of heterozygosity was observed in 24/39 (62%) primary lung cancers informative for LOH11A and in 17/34 (50%) informative for LOH11B. The pattern of allele loss strongly suggests that two lung cancer suppressor genes are located on chromosome segment 11p15.5, one between D11S1758 and D11S12 and the other between HRAS and D11S1363. The estimated physical size of each of these regions is 250 kb.