The evaluation of chromosome 8 alteration in 28 human
sporadic colorectal adenocarcinom analysis enabled to
understand to the aneuploidization of chromosome 8 in human
colorectal cancer better with the aim to better understand the
aneuploidization of chromosome 8 in human colorectal cancer.
Chromosome aberrations involving chromosome 8 have beeen
reported in various solid tumors, such as stomach, lung,
prostate and bladder cancer
6,7. Takahashi et al. reported
gain of chromosome 8 in all colorectal cancer evaluated by
interphase-FISH
13. Aragane et al. and He et al. have found a
gain at 8q in 43% and 54% of tumors analyzed by Comparative
Genomic Hybridization (CGH), respectively
14,15. Nakao
et al. determined gain involving 8q in 42% of patients by arraybased
CGH
16. Pirc-Danoewinata et al. reported one of the
most chromosomal gain of chromosome 8 using cytogenetic evaluation in 26 patients with colorectal carcinoma
17. We
found chromosome 8 trisomies in 53% of CRC by interphase-
FISH. This ratio is similar with other studies. However, we
founded different results in respect of chromosome 8
monosomies and tetrasomies. The number of centromeric
signals is reportedly unchanged throughout the cell cycle
18.
Therefore, the increase in chromosome 8 centromeric signals
suggests an abnormally increased chromosome 8 copy number
in these cases. A model of tetraploidization occured from a
diploid status and loss of chromosomes may be common in
other tumor types but apparently not during colorectal tumor
progression
19. Tetraploidization and monosomies for
chromosome 8 was very rare events during adenom-carcinom
progression in colorectal cancer. We found chromosome 8
monosomy in the patient with stage I and it could be suggested
that chromosome 8 monosomy can be an early event in
colorectal carcinogenesis. The importance of chromosome 8
monosomy in colorectal cancer is unclear
20. Because of this,
further studies involving more patients are needed to identify
biological significance of chromosome 8 monosomy for the
development and progression of colorectal cancer.
It has been reported that there may be a different clinical
outcome and histopathological character between nonpolypoid
and polypoid adenomas suggesting an alternative pathway in
the genesis of colorectal cancer. However, the variations the
clinical and in the molecular genetic findings of nonpolypoid
neoplastic lesions still remain rather unclear 20. Richter et al
reported that gains on chromosomes 2q, 5q, 6, 8q and 12q
occured exclusively in nonpolypoid adenomas 20. Although,
we didn’t found statistically significant correlation attributable
to chromosome 8 alteration in polypoid and nonpolypoid
colorectal cancers, but our results showed that chromosome 8
gain are more frequent nonpolypoid carcinomas. This
represents another indication for a different carcinogenic
pathway in both lesions. More striking evidence for this
hypothesis comes from a detailed analysis of other single
aberrations.
FISH results are often unsatisfactory in solid tumors
compared with blood or cell lines, because the abundant
connective tissue in solid tumors hampers separation into
single cells and produces excessive background debris. It make
difficult the preparation of clear specimens when interphase-
FISH studies performed using touching protocol 6,7,9. For
this reason, we advice that presence of aneusomy is defined in
correspondence with the presence of 20%-40% of centromeric
signals different from two signals corresponding to disomy.
Thus, most FISH studies of solid tumors have assessed only
changes in the copy number of chromosomes in interphase cell
nuclei. However, all chromosomal rearrangements can not be
detected, because FISH can not be used to full advantage,
employing only interphase analysis. We have achieved reliable
hybridization in interphase cell nuclei from surgically resected
solid tumors. We avoided changes in the cell population
harboring the original mutation due to selective pressure by
using primary samples rather than subcultures of cell lines.
Thus confidently can be stated that the chromosome 8 gain
and loss observed in this study was present in the original
cancer cells, rather than induced artifacts.