Mapping of human chromosomal regions related to neoplasia: evidence from chromosomes 1 and 17.

In clonal aberrations leading to an excess or partial excess of chromosome 1, trisomy for bands 1q25-1q32 was noted in the myeloid cells from all of 34 patients who had various disorders such as acute leukemia, polycythemia vera, and myelofibrosis. This was not the result of a particularly fragile site in that region of the chromosome because the break points in reciprocal translocations that involve it occurred almost exclusively in the short arm. Two consistent rearrangements that have been observed in chromosome 17 produced either duplication of the entire long arm or a translocation of the distal portion of the long arm to chromosome 15. The nonrandom chromosomal changes found in hematologic disorders can now be correlated with the gene loci on these chromosomes or chromosomal segments. Seventy-five genes related to various metabolic enzymes have been mapped; it may be significant that chromosomes carrying gene loci related to nucleic acid metabolism are more frequently involved in hematologic disorders (and other malignancies as well) than are gene loci related to intermediary or carbohydrate metabolism. Furthermore, the known virus-human chromosome associations are closely correlated with the chromosomes affected in hematologic disorders. If one of the effects of carcinogens (including viruses) is to activate genes that regulate host cell DNA synthesis, and if translocations or duplications of specific chromosomal segments produce the same effect, then either of these mechanisms might provide the affected cell with a proliferative advantage.