Chromosome 3p loss of heterozygosity and mutation analysis of the FHIT and β-cat genes in squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck

摘要

Conclusions-The short arm of chromo- some 3 is often deleted in the head and neck squamous cell carcinomas. In the remaining alleles of the FHIT or β-cat genes, no evidence was found for point mutations or deletions, documented in other common carcinomas. Inactivation could occur by different mechanisms such as methylation, or other genes (not stud- ied here) could be target of allelic losses in squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. Aims-To study the loss of heterozygosity at the short arm of chromosome 3 in pri- mary tumours from patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck; to determine whether the FHIT gene, mapped to 3p14.2 and the CTNNB1 (β-cat) gene, mapped to 3p21, are deleted or mutated in these tumours.