Basal cell carcinomas and squamous cell carcinomas of human skin show distinct patterns of chromosome loss

Although basal cell carcinomas and squamous cell carcinomas are clinically and pathologically distinct, the molecular basis for these differences is not clear. We have used polymorphic microsatellite markers to determine the pattern and extent of chromosome losses in a series of 44 basal cell carcinomas and 47 squamous cell neoplasms of the skin. Basal cell carcinomas showed a distinctive allelotype with chromosome loss largely confined to a single chromosome arm, 9q (26 of 44 informative tumors). In contrast to the predominance of loss on a single chromosome arm in basal cell carcinomas, squamous cell neoplasms showed more widespread loss with loss of heterozygosity of markers from 35 of 39 chromosome arms in one or more of the tumors studied. The pattern of loss was also different from basal cell carcinomas with frequent loss of heterozygosity of markers from 9p (41%), 13q (46%), 17p (33%), 17q (33%), and 3p (23%) in squamous cell neoplasms. The frequent loss of markers from these chromosome arms relative to other chromosome losses suggests that these arms may contain genes important in the development of cutaneous squamous cell carcinomas.