Increased detectability of somatic changes in the DNA from human tumours after probing with "synthetic" and "genome-derived" hypervariable multilocus probes.

DNA fingerprinting with two minisatellite (33.15, M13) and two simple repeat probes [(GACA)4, (CAC)5/(GTG)s] was performed to screen for somatic changes in the DNA from various solid human tumours in comparison with constitutional DNA from the same patient. Loss of bands or changes in band intensities were observed. Together the probes 33.15 and (CAC)5/(GTG)5 detected deviating fingerprint patterns in 63% of the colorectal carcinomas investigated. In mammary and stomach carcinomas, only 1/11 and 2/11 tumours, respectively, showed differences with either of the three probes, 33.15, (GACA)4 and (CAC)5/(GTG)5.