Background: Intestinal-type sinonasal adenocarcinomas are rare tumors related to professional exposure to wood dust. Little is known about the genetic changes in these tumors.
Methods: Twenty-two tumors were analyzed by microarray comparative genomic hybridization (CGH). In addition, DNA ploidy was measured by flow cytometry and microsatellite instability (MSI) by multiplex PCR.
Results: The most frequent gains were, in descending order, as follows: 5p15, 20q13, and 8q24. Losses occurred most frequently at 4q31-qter, 18q12-22, 8p12-pter, and 5q11-qter. MSI was not detected. Seven cases that harbored very few changes were mostly DNA diploid and had more favorable clinicopathological features, such as lack of intracranial invasion, less metastases, and longer overall survival.
Conclusion: The microarray CGH results enabled to better define hotspots of chromosomal gains and losses for further investigation of genes involved in the tumorigenesis of sinonasal adenocarcinoma. In addition, the data allowed classification of a group of patients with better clinical outcome.