The ETV6, CDKN1B and D12S178 loci are involved in a segment commonly deleted in various 12p aberrations in different hematological malignancies

Structural rearrangements including deletions of the short arm of chromosome 12 are frequent cytogenetic findings in various hematologic malignant disorders. Using FISH with a panel of DNA probes we detected loss of a common region of 12p in 22 patients with different hematologic disorders. Nine of them were characterized cytogenetically by a del(12p), seven by unbalanced translocations, and in the remaining cases the loss of the 12p region was masked by translocations and insertions, adding extra material to the short arm of chromosome 12. The smallest commonly deleted region found in all cases analyzed included ETV6, the gene for p27^kip1 (CDKN1B), and the D12S178 marker.