Constitutive heterochromatin C-band polymorphism in prostatic cancer

The size of the heterochromatin C-bands on chromosomes has been reported to be associated with some, but by no means all, human malignancies. No studies along these lines have been performed in prostatic cancer. We therefore investigated the size, incidence of inversions, and symmetry versus asymmetry of C-band heteromorphisms on chromosomes 1, 9, and 16 in peripheral blood lymphocytes from 52 prostatic cancer patients and 183 healthy individuals. There were no differences in C-band heteromorphism on chromosomes 1, 9, and 16 between the patients and the controls. Neither were there any differences when patients with early-stage disease were compared with patients with more advanced cancer. Younger (aged less than 70 years) cancer patients had significantly higher frequencies of larger C-bands on chromosomes 1 (p less than 0.01) and 16 (p less than 0.001) than did patients aged more than 70 years at diagnosis. This could indicate a possible relationship between the amount of constitutive heterochromatin on chromosomes 1 and 16 and susceptibility to early development of prostatic cancer but could also result from the age differences between the two patient groups.