The putative tumor suppressor gene FHIT at 3p14.2 is rarely deleted in primary human brain tumors

Only recently, a candidate tumor suppressor gene encompassing the most common human fragile site FRA3B has been identified and designated FHIT. Whereas FHIT was found to be deleted in a variety of human cancers (Refs. 1-8), no data on the role of FHIT in human brain tumors exist. We set out to analyze a total of 254 brain tumors for loss of heterozygosity (LOH) at the FHIT gene locus. In primary brain tumors LOH was detected at a frequency of 8.4% (n=210). In contrast, observed LOH rate for brain metastases was as high as 54.5% (n=44) being in accordance with data thus far accumulated from analyses of corresponding primary tumors. Our data indicate that allelic loss of the FHIT gene is neither a critical event in carcinogenesis of primary brain tumors nor tumor grade-associated in astrocytic tumors.