Chromosome 5 allele loss in human gastric, ampullary and pancreatic carcinomas

Chromosome 5 allele loss is a genetic alteration occurring during the multistep progression of colon carcinogenesis. To determine whether a similar genetic alteration occurs in other gastrointestinal malignancies, the authors have analyzed DNA extracted from freshly frozen normal and neoplastic tissue from nineteen patients who underwent radical resections for gastric, ampullary and pancreatic adenocarcinomas at the University of Chicago. Loss of heterozygosity for alleles on the long arm of chromosome 5 was detected in tumor DNA compared to normal tissue DNA from the same patient using restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs). Eleven patients were informative using the restriction endonuclease TaqI to generate RFLPs for chromosome 5 probes C11 P11 and pTP5E. Loss of heterozygosity was found in one of eight informative gastric carcinomas (12.5%) and in one of two informative ampullary carcinomas. The only informative pancreatic adenocarcinoma was heterozygous. It is concluded that chromosome 5 allele loss occurs in a variety of gastrointestinal malignancies and suggest that common genetic origins may underlie these different tumors.