Rearrangements of Chromosome 3 in Nonfamilial Renal Cell Carcinomas from Japanese Patients

Cytogenetic studies were successfully carried out in 5 tumor tissues from Japanese patients with nonfamilial renal cell carcinoma, histologically diagnosed as clear cell subtype. Mitotic cells were obtained by a combined method of enzymatic disaggregation and short‐term culture (6–12 days). The modal chromosome numbers were found to be diploid or near‐diploid in all the cases examined. Every case showed characteristic structural and numerical abnormalities. Rearrangements in the short arm of chromosome 3 were observed as clonal abnormalities in all the cases, including a translocation t(3;6) resulting in a partial loss of 3p (3 cases), a terminal deletion of 3p (one case) and 2 different translocations involving 3p and 8p (one case). The other clonal abnormalities were a whole or partial trisomy of chromosome 7 and a loss of Y chromosome. The overall results in the present study were consistent with those of our previous data in American patients, and suggest that the rearrangements of chromosome 3 leading to a partial loss of its short arm may play primary and significant role(s) in the development of renal cell carcinoma.