Cytogenetics of heritability in cancer

A possible causal association between chromosome structural change and neoplastic transformation has long been mooted, particularly since chromosomal changes occur frequently in the cells of a variety of malignancies. Only in recent years, however, has the evidence in support of this contention begun to appear convincing, and this has followed from the application of developments in cytogenetic techniques. The advent of methods for revealing specific bands in the human metaphase complement has enabled all the chromosomes and many chromosomal regions to be unambiguously identified, and the recent application of prophase banding methods gives further improvements in resolution. With these techniques, specific constitutional chromosomal deletions or translocations have been discovered in inherited cases of retinoblastoma (del.13q14), Wilms' tumour with aniridia (del.11p13) and renal-cell carcinoma (t(3:8) (p21:q24)), in which each of the chromosomal changes appears to be a dominant factor in inheriting a predisposition to a tissue-specific tumour. A heritability for cancer predisposition is also associated with the inherited chromosomal instability syndromes of Bloom's, Fanconi's anaemia and ataxia telangiectasia, although specific chromosomal changes have not been reported to be associated with the neoplasms in such individuals, except in some cases of lymphoma and leukaemia in ataxia telangiectasia. Specific chromosomal translocations have, however, been recorded in a variety of malignancies, with a particular involvement of chromosomes 22, 14, 8, 15, 17 and 21. However, although many hundreds of patients with the specific 9/22 rearrangement seen in chronic myeloid leukaemia and also those with the 14/8 rearrangement in Burkitt's, and other, lymphomas have been described, no single case in which these rearrangements were present as constitutional changes has been reported. The possible nature of the changes seen at the cytogenetic level in terms of gene content of the chromosomes involved is discussed.