Humans inherit two sets of chromosomes, one from the mother and a second from the father.
Further, most human solid tissue neoplasms have a background frequency of LOH, and the prevalence of LOH increases with advancing stages of neoplastic progression. However, it has been difficult to extend investigations of LOH to large-scale clinical and public health science studies because of the small size and cellular and genetic heterogeneity of human neoplasms, in addition to the challenges associated with increasing throughput. This method of analysis should allow accurate, reproducible determination of allele ratios in a variety of human tumors and premalignant conditions. This methodology will permit large-scale clinical and public health science studies to be performed using LOH as validated, intermediate markers of progression.