KARYOTYPIC ABNORMALITIES IN ADENOCARCINOMAS OF THE LUNG

Cytogenetic analysis of 114 adenocarcinomas of the lung revealed clonal abnormalities in 67 tumors. The chromosome numbers ranged from near-diploid to hypertetraploid. Clonal abnormalities seen as the sole anomaly were loss of the Y chromosome (21 tumors), trisomy 7 (2 tumors), and trisomy 12 (1 tumor). A supernumerary ring chromosome was the only clonal change in 4 tumors. The bands most often affected were 17p11-13 (13 cases), 1q10-12 and 1p22 (10 cases each), 1p11-13 and 1q21 (9 cases each), and 11p11, 11p15 and 15p11-13 (6 cases each). The chromosomes most frequently involved in structural rearrangements were chromosomes 1 (30 cases), 11 (20 cases), 3 (17 cases), 17 and 7 (16 cases each). Repeated loss of material from chromosome arms 1p, 3p, 6q, 11p, and 17p and gains of 1q were found. Recurrent structural changes were del(1)(p22) and i(5)(p10) (5 cases each) i(1)(q10), i(13)(q10), i(14)(q10) and del(17)(p11) (3 cases each). We found no abnormalities that seemed to be specifically associated with pulmonary adenocarcinomas, but isochromosomes i(1)(q10), i(5)(p10) and i(13)(q10) and changes of 6q were present in our series at frequencies higher than those generally seen in the other main types of lung cancer.