In vitro proliferative advantage of bone marrow cells with tetrasomy 8 in Ewing sarcoma

We describe a case of a 14.5-year-old boy with a clinically aggressive pelvic Ewing sarcoma. The tumor cells showed the presence of a typical t(11;22)(q24;q12) aberration and gains of chromosomes 8, 10, 14, and 21. To determine the size of the trisomy and tetrasomy 8 clones an interphase analysis by fluorescence in situ hybridization with a centromere-specific chromosome 8 probe was performed. Significant quantitative differences between metaphase and interphase data were obtained. It was shown that culturing of bone marrow cells leads to enrichment of tetrasomy 8 population that may be explained by the proliferative advantage of the tetrasomy 8 cells.