Infrequent Mutation of the H‐Cadherin Gene on Chromosome 16q24 in Human Breast Cancers

To investigate the molecular basis of altered expression of the H‐cadherin gene, we used polymerase chain reaction‐single strand conformation polymorphism and DNA sequencing to examine the H‐cadherin gene in 48 primary breast cancers in which loss of the long arm of chromosome 16 had been detected. We identified no mutations other than somatic 5‐bp deletion within the coding region in a single tumor. The very low frequency of mutation found in these experiments suggests that H‐cadherin is usually not a primary target for carcinogenesis in human breast cancers, and that reduction of its expression is likely to be a consequence of some other genetic event(s).