An ovarian cancer family: clinical and cytogenetic data.

A family with five ovarian neoplasms in three subsequent generations was studied. Four women had ovarian cancer at age 38, 40, 47, and 53, and one had cystoma ovari at 24. There were other neoplasms and preneoplastic lesions in this family. Several developmental anomalies were revealed, and one of them (a tooth anomaly) may be associated with ovarian tumors. Cytogenetic studies have been carried out on six of the living relatives, including two treated for ovarian neoplasms. The incidence of spontaneous chromosome aberrations was not significantly increased in each of these cases. Polymorphism of constitutive heterochromatin regions was observed in all six individuals. The possible type of inheritance of the ovarian cancer, the significance of the tooth anomaly, and the constitutive heterochromatin polymorphism as cancer markers in this family are discussed.