Loss of heterozygosity (LOH), malignancy grade and clonality in microdissected prostate cancer

The aim of the present study was to find out whether increasing malignancy of prostate carcinoma correlates with an overall increase of loss of heterozygosity (LOH), and whether LOH typing of microdissected tumour areas can help to distinguish between multifocal or clonal tumour development. In 47 carcinomas analysed at 25 chromosomal loci, the overall LOH rate was found to be significantly lower in grade 1 areas (2.2%) compared with grade 2 (9.4%) and grade 3 areas (8.3%, P = 0.007). A similar tendency was found for the mean fractional allele loss (FAL, 0.043 for grade 1, 0.2 for grade 2 and 0.23 for grade 3, P = 0.0004). Of 20 tumours (65%) with LOH in several microdissected areas, 13 had identical losses at 1–4 loci within two or three areas, suggesting clonal development of these areas. Markers near RB, DCC, BBC1, TP53 and at D13S325 (13q21–22) showed higher loss rates in grades 2 and 3 (between 25% and 44.4%) compared with grade 1 (0–6.6%). Tumour-suppressor genes (TSGs) near these loci might, thus, be important for tumour progression. TP53 mutations were detected in 27%, but BBC1 mutations in only 7%, of samples with LOH. Evaluation of all 25 loci in every tumour made evident that each prostate cancer has its own pattern of allelic losses. © 1999 Cancer Research Campaign