Identification of genetic imbalances of nasopharyngeal carcinoma [NPC] by comparative genomic hybridization [CGH]

Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma [NPC] is highly prevalent in southern China and southeast Asia. To unveil the molecular basis of this endemic disease, comparative genomic hybridization [CGH] technique was used to identify imbalanced genetic alterations in this malignancy. Chromosornal gains that were found in this study were 4q26 [20%] and 11q13-q14 [20%], while chromosomal losses were 20p12 [40%] and 13q21-q31 [20%]. These preliminary results suggest that there may be activation of oncogenes in the gain regions and suppression of tumour suppressor gene in the loss regions