Chromosome 19 Translocation, Overexpression of Notch3, and Human Lung Cancer

Abstract

Somatically acquired chromosometranslocations are the major mechanismfor gene activation in hematologic ma-lignancies, but they have not been de-scribed previously in the more commonepithelial tumors, such as lung cancers.Furthermore, lung carcinomas often ex-hibit complex karyotypes, and this com-plexity has been assumed to imply a lackof specificity. Indeed, chromosomal de-letions associated with mutations in tu-mor suppressor genes, or gene amplifi-cations of dominant oncogenes, arewell-known genetic abnormalities inthese tumors