Abstract
We have examined the status of the Wilms' tumor suppressor gene (W77), residing at chromosome II band p13, in a total of 40 cancers of the female reproductive tract. Northern blot analysis revealed that the WTI gene is expressed in a large percentage of ovarian tumors (75%) analyzed. Single-strand conformation polymorphism analysis was performed on all the tumors in this study in an attempt to detect mutations within the WTI gene. Only silent mutations were detected within intron 7 of WTI using this method. Loss of heterozygosity studies were performed at the WTI locus in several ovarian tumors and revealed that in the informative cases, heterozygosity was retained.