Cytological Studies of Tumors. XL. Chromosome Studies in Fifty-Two Human Tumors<xref ref-type="fn" rid="FN2">2</xref><xref ref-type="fn" rid="FN3">3</xref>

Abstract

Chromosomes were investigated in 52 human tumors, effusion and solid, by the water-pretreatment acetic dahlia squash method. The chromosomes studied were from 30 patients with gastric carcinomas, 13 with uterine carcinomas, 4 with rectal carcinomas, 2 with mammary carcinomas, 2 with ovarian carcinomas, and 1 with an ascites hepatoma. Thirty-four tumors were characterized by 1, or rarely 2, marked stemlines with a characteristic number mode (or modes) and a specific karyotype (or karyotypes), while 3 tumors showed karyological heterogeneity, with a wide distribution of chromosome numbers. No detailed analyses of chromosomes were made in the remaining 15 tumors. Tumors characterized by the hyperdiploid-triploid modality were most frequent, the hypotetraploid one ranking next. No definite correlation was detected between the chromosome condition of tumor cells and pathological pattern of the tumor itself. Further, evidence was presented to suggest that the genetic pattern, which is closely correlated with the property of the tumor, may not be identical among tumors, even though they originated from the same organ. Based on the results of detailed karyogram and karyotype analyses, the course of malignant transformation was discussed. It was concluded that heteroploid transformation of cells may be an important factor in malignant transformation, in addition to numerical alteration and/or structural reorganization of chromosomes.