Comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) has been applied to detect recurrent chromosome alterations in 62 primary gastric carcinomas. Several nonrandom chromosomal changes, including gains of 8q (31 cases, 50%), 20q (29 cases, 47%) with a minimum gain region at 20q11.2–q12, 13q (21 cases, 34%) with a minimum gain region at 13q22, and 3q (19 cases, 31%) were commonly observed. The regions most frequently lost included: 19p (23 cases, 37%), 17p (21 cases, 33%), and 1p (14 cases, 23%). High copy number gain (DNA sequence amplification) was detected in 6 cases. Amplification of 8q23–q24.2 and 20q11.2–q12 were observed in 3 cases. Gain of 20q and loss of 19p were confirmed by fluorescence in situ hybridization using corresponding bacterial artificial chromosomes (BAC) clones from those regions. The gain and loss of chromosomal regions identified in this study provide candidate regions involved in gastric tumorigenesis.

Membrane type 1-matrix metalloproteinase (MT1-MMP) is a member of the recently identified unique membrane-type subgroup in the matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) family. MT1-MMP has proteolytic activity against components of the extracellular matrix and activates progelatinase A (MMP-2) at the cell surface. In this study, we analyzed the expression of MT1-MMP mRNA in 45 cases of laryngeal carcinoma by RT-PCR and investigated the relationship between MT1-MMP expression and survival in 18 cases. The result showed that the expression of MT1-MMP mRNA was higher in tumor tissue than in corresponding normal tissue. The tumoral expression in clinical stage III was higher than in stage II. The tumoral expression level of MT1-MMP mRNA in patients with lymph node metastasis was signigicantly higher than those with negative lymph nodes. The patients with high expression level showed significantly poorer 5 year survival than those with low expression level. Collectively, our findings suggest that the high level of MT1-MMP expression is closely related to the invasion and metastasis of laryngeal carcinoma, and indicates poorer prognosis.