Recurrent deletion of the short arm of chromosome 3 in human renal cell carcinoma: shift of the c-raf 1 locus.

A cytogenetic study performed on 6 human renal cell carcinomas after short-term culture on extracellular matrix with serum-free medium showed aneuploidy without structural changes in 2 tumors and a rearrangement of the short arm of chromosome 3 in 4 tumors, including deletions and a translocation involving the 3p14 and 3p21 bands. Chromosomal in situ hybridization with a c-raf 1 probe demonstrated that in 2 renal cancers with del3(p14 or 21) the cellular oncogene had shifted from 3p25 to 3p14 as a result of an interstitial deletion.