Preferential chromosome 11q and/or 17q aberrations in short-term cultures of metastatic melanoma in resections from human brain.

Thirteen specimens of metastatic malignant melanoma resected from eight patients undergoing craniotomy were analyzed cytogenetically from short-term cultures. All patients had chromosome 1 aberrations, as did three of four patients with metastases only to extracranial sites. Both groups had variable involvement of chromosomes 3, 6, 7, and 8. Only those with brain metastases had 11q and/or 17q involvement in six of eight patients. In reported cases of nonbrain metastases, when chromosome 11 was involved, the short arm was usually deleted or replaced through translocation; on the contrary, in reports on patients with brain metastases, the long arm of chromosome 11 was deleted at q23 or was the recipient of a translocation at q23, and/or 17q was present as an isochromosome. These aberrations were similar to those found in the patients with brain metastases in this report. Two patients undergoing brain resections did not show 11q or 17q aberrations, one near diploid with t(10;19) and the other near hexaploid with few structural rearrangements. The neural cell adhesion molecule gene is located near 11q23, and the neural growth factor receptor is located near 17q21-q22. The relevance of these genes to brain metastases in melanoma is under investigation.