Objective: To study the cytogenesis of colorectal carcinoma and to look for colorectal carcinoma related chromosomal fragility sites which could facilitate screening of high risk colorectal carcinoma patients.
Methods: 20 cases of surgically resected colorectal carcinomas and 4 cell lines were analysed cytogenetically.
Results: Most of the tumor cells were heteroploid, the chromosome number was predominately hypodiploid. Karyotypic analysis demonstrated an increase of chromosome 13, and loss of chromosome 17 and chromosome 1 appeared frequently. The most frequently found structural abnormalities in colorectal carcinoma were breakpoint 1q21 and 1p13. Highly non-random cancer chromosome breakpoints and fragile sites were compared with the oncogene locus and found that their locus or neighboring locus was 1q21.
Conclusion: The results suggest that breakpoint 1q21 may be related to tumorgenesis and may be useful in screening and preventing colorectal carcinoma.