| Abstract: | Objective: To further refine the extent of deletion on chromosome 9p21-22 in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and provide evidence for discovering new tumor suppressor gene. Methods: Loss of heterozygosity (LOH) on chromosome 9p21-22 was analyzed in 25 paired blood and tumor samples by using 11 high-density microsatellite polymorphic markers. Results: 17 of 25 cases (68.0%) showed LOH at one or more loci. Higher frequencies of LOH were found at four loci: D9S161 (35.0%), D9S1678 (31.5%), D9S263 (33.3%) and D9S1853 (33.3%), where 6 cases had a contiguous stretch of allelic loss. Conclusion: The minimal common region of deletion might be defined between D9S161 and D9S1853 (estimated about 2.7 cM in extent) at 9p21.1, suggesting that inactivation of one or more tumor suppressor genes located in this region may be an important step in NPC. |
