Allelic imbalance on chromosome 18 in neuroblastoma

We previously demonstrated that chromosome 18 is frequently deleted in neuroblastoma. To further elucidate the role of chromosome 18 deletions in the development of neuroblastomas we examined 82 cases of neuroblastomas for allelic imbalance (AI) at 17 loci on chromosome 18 to define the common region of AI in neuroblastoma. AI at one or more loci on chromosome 18 was detected in 18/82 (22%) cases. AI on 18q was detected in 17/82 (21%) cases, whereas AI on 18p was detected in 4/82 (5%) cases. There was a distinct common region of AI at 18q21.1 between the D18S363 and D18S858 loci. In addition, cases 16 and 53, which did not show AI at 18q21.1, showed AI at 18pter-q12.3 between the D18S52 and D18S36 loci, indicating that another common region of AI may exist on chromosome 18. AI on chromosome 18 did not significantly correlate with any clinicopathological findings of patients with neuroblastoma. The common region of AI at 18q21.1 includes the DCC gene but not the Smad2 and Smad4 genes. However, our previous studies together with the present study indicated that the incidence of DCC mutation is much less than that of AI at 18q21.1 in neuroblastoma. These results indicate that novel tumour suppressor genes involved in the development of neuroblastoma are present at 18q21.1, and possibly at 18pter-q12.3.