LIVER, PANCREAS, AND BILIARY TRACT Genetic Alterations Associated With Hepatocellular Carcinomas Define Distinct Pathways of Hepatocarcinogenesis

of genetic alterations can help in the elucidation of liver carcinogenesis pathways, 137 tumors were analyzed. Methods: High-density allelotype, p53, Axin1, and b-catenin gene mutations were determined. Alterations were analyzed according to clinical parameters. Results: Tumors could be divided into 2 groups according to chromosome stability status. In the first group, demon-strating a chromosome stability, b-catenin mutation as-sociated with chromosome 8p losses were frequently found as the single genetic alterations. b-catenin muta-tions were associated with large tumor size and with negative hepatitis B virus status. In the second group, demonstrating a chromosome instability, the most fre-quent allelic losses were on chromosome 1p, 4q, 6q, 9p, 13q, 16p, 16q, and 17p; Axin1 and p53 were frequentl