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A second field metachronous Merkel cell carcinoma of the lip and the palatine tonsil confirmed by microarray-based comparative genomic hybridisation

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Abstract

Merkel cell carcinoma was diagnosed in a 79-year-old Caucasian woman. The tumour was localised to the upper lip and was in stage T2. After successful cryosurgery and a 7-year tumour-free period, a new tumour developed in her palatine tonsil. Histologically and immunohistochemically, this resembled the tumour in the lip. The regional lymph nodes were devoid of metastasis. The paraffin-embedded material of the two tumours and the unaffected lymphatic tissue were analysed with DNA microarrays for comparative genomic hybridisation to assess the genetic relationship of the tumours. In both tumours, regions on 2p and 10p were commonly over-represented, while 41 regions on chromosomes 1–4, 6, 8–9, 11 and 14–22 were commonly under-represented. Chromosomes 1, 3, 4, 16–18 and X were most frequently involved in the DNA losses. In gene copy numbers in the two tumours, 31 chromosome locations were found to be differently affected. The partly similar and partly different molecular patterns indicated a genetic relationship between the tumours and excluded the possibility that the tonsillar tumour was a metastasis. The findings suggest that a genetically altered field was the reason for the development of the tonsillar cancer; thus, it can be regarded pathogenetically as a second field tumour.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a grant from the Hungarian Ministry of Health (ETT 400/2003). LGP is supported by the János Bolyai fellowship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Oral Medicine, Department of Dentistry and Oral Surgery, University of Szeged, Faculty of Medicine, Szeged, Hungary

    Judit Nagy & István Sonkodi

  2. Laboratory of Functional Genomics, Biological Research Centre, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 521, 6701, Szeged , Hungary

    Liliána Z. Fehér & László G. Puskás

  3. Department of Histopathology, Bács-Kiskun County Hospital, Kecskemét, Hungary

    József Lesznyák

  4. Department of Pathology, University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary

    Béla Iványi

Authors
  1. Judit Nagy
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  2. Liliána Z. Fehér
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  3. István Sonkodi
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  4. József Lesznyák
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  5. Béla Iványi
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  6. László G. Puskás
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Correspondence to László G. Puskás.

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Nagy, J., Fehér, L.Z., Sonkodi, I. et al. A second field metachronous Merkel cell carcinoma of the lip and the palatine tonsil confirmed by microarray-based comparative genomic hybridisation. Virchows Arch 446, 278–286 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00428-004-1176-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00428-004-1176-0

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