Abstract
Background: In head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, distinguishing second primary tumours and recurrences may help to orient clinical decisions concerning therapy. Patients and Methods: A panel of eight microsatellite markers was used to analyse the loss of heterozygosity and genomic instability in a selected group of 32 patients experiencing a recurrence after having undergone surgery for oral or oropharyngeal carcinoma, in order to establish the clonality and origin of the recurrence. Results: Twenty-three patients showed genetic changes in primary and/or relapsing tumour DNA: clonally-related patterns were detected in six cases, whereas the different patterns between paired tumours indicated the presence of a second primary tumour in 17 cases. None of the markers was informative in nine cases. Conclusion: Our observations suggest that only a small proportion of patients have primary and secondary tumours developing from a single contiguous altered field (thus indicating a common clonal origin), whereas the metachronous tumour arises in unrelated fields in the majority of cases.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 2771-2776 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | Anticancer Research |
Volume | 25 |
Issue number | 4 |
Publication status | Published - Jul 2005 |
Keywords
- Head and neck cancer
- Microsatellite analyses
- Recurrence
- Second primary tumours
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Cancer Research
- Oncology