[Detection of 8 oncogenes in squamous epithelial cancers of the head and neck]

Squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck from 50 untreated patients were analyzed for rearranged or amplified proto-oncogenes by Southern blot hybridization. The bcl-1 and hst genes were coamplified 8- to 32-fold in 5 of 46 patients (11%) and the c-erb A1 and c-erb B2 genes 32-fold in 1 of 46 patients (2%). Eight to 16-fold amplification of c-myc was observed in 4 of 46 tumor samples (8%), while 4-fold amplification of Ha-ras was found in 2 of 46 tumor samples (4%). There was one patient with a 64-fold c-erb B2 amplification without accompanying c-erb A1 amplification. RNA-expression analysis using Northern blot and poly-A-+RNA techniques did not reveal any changes in the RNA expression of c-erb A1 while c-erb B2, hst and bcl-1 were not expressed at all. No Ki-ras or N-myc amplification was observed, nor was any rearrangement of the above-mentioned oncogenes found. Clinical correlation existed between tumor stage and oncogene amplification: patients with stage I and II disease (IUCC,AJCC) showed no amplification at all, whereas 14 patients with stage III and IV disease showed amplified oncogenes (P = 0.015,chi 2-test). In contrast, there was no correlation between oncogene amplification and disease development (observed over a minimum period of 3 years), nor could amplification be correlated with other clinical parameters (sex, tumor site, -histology) for any of the oncogenes.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)