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Consistent Involvement of Only 71 of the 329 Chromosomal Bands of the Human Genome in Primary Neoplasia-associated Rearrangements¹

Department of Clinical Genetics, Lund University Hospital, S-221 85 Lund, Sweden

In an attempt to quantify the nonrandomness of primary neoplasia-associated acquired chromosomal aberrations in humans, we have retrieved information from a computerized data base on the chromosomal abnormalities of 9069 human neoplasms. By restricting the survey to the 1985 cases with a solitary structural rearrangement, we attempted to limit the analysis to only those aberrations that were most likely to represent pathogenetically important, primary changes. The breakpoints of the primary abnormalities thus identified clustered to 71 bands. It furthermore turned out that 27 of the 41 oncogene sites known with reasonable precision (i.e., localized within one or two bands) coincide with bands consistently involved in neoplasia-associated rearrangements. These comparisons add to the evidence that acquired, cancer-associated chromosomal aberrations are nonrandom in distribution, that only a limited number of genomic sites are consistently involved in primary neoplasia-associated aberrations, and that the concordance between the breakpoints of primary aberrations and the location of cellular oncogenes is greater than predicted by chance.

¹ Supported by grants from the Swedish Cancer Society.

² To whom requests for reprints should be addressed.

Received 6/13/88. Revised 9/ 6/88. Accepted 9/21/88.