The FHIT gene, spanning the chromosome 3p14.2 fragile site and renal carcinoma-associated t(3;8) breakpoint, is abnormal in digestive tract cancers.

A 200-300 kb region of chromosome 3p14.2, including the fragile site locus FRA3B, is homozygously deleted in multiple tumor-derived cell lines. Exon amplification from cosmids covering this deleted region allowed identification of the human FHIT gene, a member of ther histidine triad gene family, which encodes a protein with 69% similarity to an S. pombe enzyme, diadenosine 5', 5''' P1, P4-tetraphosphate asymmetrical hydrolase. The FHIT locus is composed of ten exons distributed over at least 500 kb, with three 5' untranslated exons centromeric to the renal carcinoma-associated 3p14.2 breakpoint, the remaining exons telomeric to this translocation breakpoint, and exon 5 within the homozygously deleted fragile region. Aberrant transcripts of the FHIT locus were found in approximately 50% of esophageal, stomach, and colon carcinomas.