Cytogenetics of papillary renal cell tumors.

Chromosome aberrations were determined in short-term cultures of 18 papillary renal cell tumors, as well as in the cell line ACHN, and the results were evaluated together with 20 previously published cases. We found that chromosomes 7, 17, and 16 and the Y chromosome were specifically involved in the karyotype changes, marks benign papillary renal cell adenomas (ten cases). Malignant papillary renal cell carcinomas (29 cases) were characterized by additional trisomies: trisomy 16 occurred in 20 tumors, and trisomy 12 and 20 in 8 tumors each.