Objective: To study the mechanism of resistance to chemotherapeutic drugs of ovarian carcinoma and to locate drug-resistance related genes.
Methods: Comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) was performed on the specimens of carcinoma tissue obtained during operation from 24 patients with ovarian carcinoma, 12 being drug-resistant and six serous, so as to investigate the genomic imbalance.
Results: In the drug-resistant group the most common chromosomal alterations were the gains of 3q, 8q, 20q, 11q, 17q, 12p and 1q, and the losses of 9p, 5q, 10q, and 3p. Of these changes the most significant finding was the gain of 17q with a frequency of 66.7% in the drug-resistant group and with a frequency of 16.7% in the drug- sensitive group, and the gain of 1q with a frequency of 66.7% in drug-resistant group and with a frequency of 16.7% in drug-sensitive group, the loss of 3p with a frequency of 50.0% in the drug-resistant group and with a frequency of 8.3% in the drug-sensitive group.
Conclusion: The gains of 17q and 1q and the loss of 3p are the common genomic alterations in the drug-resistant groups, which may code ovarian carcinoma drug-resistance related genes.