BMC Cancer 2007, 7:226 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2407/7/226 s e csa 20 8 1 9 5 , sce 15 n a l a b ithm 10 i w s e m so 5 o m o r h C 0 iskn irdo ttea rsue redd itcyc ire a lca io rau rxyan treho lrane lvvau SNCC trsbea itrcsga LSNCC irvoaan l_aodne sphuag LSCC ssuoauq_m tyh rsop tu lba lonaem rcondeoneun rsccead_neaaon ircve lcaohng llltcaohepe shopna H ltrccaeoo seo p lnFNoaicugnimutarebsepeinirt1dhoiecflaiamtlobtruaflmoanrocroesvdecrhalrlogmenoosmomiceisnsfotarbdiliftfye,rienn5t9t1u8mmoralig- Number of imbalanced chromosomes for different tumor loci as indicator for overall genomic instability, in 5918 malig- nant epithelial tumors. The box plots indicate the median and distribution of chromosomes in each tumor karyotype, with total or partial genomic imbalances. Only malignant cases (ICD-code ####/2 or ####/3) were analyzed. Detailed aberration profiles for each entity can be found in the Additional file 1. Breast carcinoma (667 cases) Gains: 1q31 (50.8%), 8q23 (47.3%), 17q24 (31,2%), 20q (30.9%), 16p, 11q13, 19, 3q Losses: 16q (30%), 8p23 (26.1%), 17p13 (23.5%), 11q23 (23.1%), 13q21 (22.8%) In breast carcinomas, gains on 1q and losses on 16q con- stitute the most frequent copy number changes of each quality. In the literature, a cytogenetic subtype with com- bination of these imbalances and few other genomic changes has been associated with histology of well differ- entiated DCIS [40] and a favorable prognosis [41]. Inter- estingly, gains on 11q13 and 12q24 were associated with higher metastasis-free survival in another study [42], which also associated multiple imbalances with a bad prognosis. Although ERBB2 has been a known and clinically relevant [43] amplification target on 17q, distinct amplicons map- ping telomeric to the ERBB2 locus have been described [44]. Prostate carcinoma (600 cases) Gains: 8q24 (23%), 7, X Losses: 8p21 (32.3%), 13q21 (26.5%), 6q16 (18.5%), 16q(23), 5q(21) In contrast to other adenocarcinomas, and accounting for the overall low copy number variations, prostate ca. usu- ally lack the 1q gains frequent in most carcinoma entities. While Mattfeldt et al. [45] showed a correlation of 8p loss to higher tumor stage, the negative prognostic impact of gains of 8q and chromosome 7 in was reported from bioptic samples [46] and early tumors [47]. A meta anal- ysis of published copy number data recently was provided by Sun et al. [48]. Gastric carcinoma (529 cases) Gains: 20q12 (36.1%), 8q23 (31.7%), 17q21 (21.2%), 7 (up to 20.8%), 13q22q31, 1q, 3q, 5p, 11q13, X Losses: 17p13 (24.4%), 19p (18%), 18q (16.6%), 1p, 3p, 4, 5q, 9p, 12q, 16 For most chromosomes, an overall background of 4–10% of gains as well as losses can be found. In gastric carcino- mas as well as in some other entities, 8q gains have shown their maximum at 8q23, proximal to the c-myc locus [49], implying a hitherto unidentified target. FOivgeurraell i2mbalance pattern from all cases Overall imbalance pattern from all cases. For each chromosomal band (862 bands resolution) the percentage of cases with gains (green, upward) and losses (red, downward) is indicated. Page 4 of 15 (page number not for citation purposes)