Oncogene amplifications, rearrangements, and restriction fragment length polymorphisms in human leukaemia

We have determined the prevalence of amplification and rearrangements for c-myc, c-myb, c-mos, bcr, c-abl, c-Ha-ras-1, c-N-ras, and c-K-ras-2 in a total of 51 cases of human leukaemia (19 patients with AML, 13 cases with CML, 14 cases with ALL, and 5 cases with CLL). Amplifications at a level of more than 2 two copies per haploid genome are apparently very rare and were found only once for c-myb in a c-ALL patient. Oncogene rearrangements were not found except for bcr, which was rearranged in all cases of CML, and 5 cases of ALL studied. Restriction fragment lengths polymorphisms (RFLPs) were also analysed. A previously described rare 5 kb EcoRI allele at the c-mos locus was absent in our patients. Rare alleles at the c-Ha-ras-1 locus were found to be significantly more prevalent in our patients than in a control group. Transfection experiments revealed no dominant transforming oncogenes in the tumour DNA of 3 patients carrying such rare alleles.