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. 1986 Feb;83(4):1092–1096. doi: 10.1073/pnas.83.4.1092

Human small-cell lung cancers show amplification and expression of the N-myc gene.

M M Nau, B J Brooks Jr, D N Carney, A F Gazdar, J F Battey, E A Sausville, J D Minna
PMCID: PMC323017  PMID: 2869482

Abstract

We have found that 6 of 31 independently derived human small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) cell lines have 5- to 170-fold amplified N-myc gene sequences. The amplification is seen with probes from two separate exons of N-myc, which are homologous to either the second or the third exon of the c-myc gene. Amplified N-myc sequences were found in a tumor cell line started prior to chemotherapy, in SCLC tumor samples harvested directly from tumor metastases at autopsy, and from a resected primary lung cancer. Several N-myc-amplified tumor cell lines also exhibited N-myc hybridizing fragments not in the germ-line position. In one patient's tumor, an additional amplified N-myc DNA fragment was observed and this fragment was heterogenously distributed in liver metastases. In contrast to SCLC with neuroendocrine properties, no non-small-cell lung cancer lines examined were found to have N-myc amplification. Fragments encoding two N-myc exons also detect increased amounts of a 3.1-kilobase N-myc mRNA in N-myc-amplified SCLC lines and in one cell line that does not show N-myc gene amplification. Both DNA and RNA hybridization experiments show that in any one SCLC cell line, only one myc-related gene is amplified and expressed. We conclude that N-myc amplification is both common and potentially significant in the tumorigenesis or tumor progression of SCLC.

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