Common multigenic activation in different human neoplasias.

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Abstract
It was previously shown that a common multigenic component, designated as tumor‐specific DNA (tsDNA), was transcriptionally active in human lymphoid neoplasias and only slightly active, if at all, in normal lymphoid cells, including the Priess cell line immortalized by Epstein‐Barr virus. In the Burkitt lymphoma‐derived Raji cell line, tsDNA corresponded to 2500‐3000 distinct transcription units, arbitrarily defined as encoding mRNA chains of 1000 kds each. In the present study, radioactive Raji cell tsDNA was isolated by a recycling procedure which eliminates transcribed DNA sequences common to both the Raji cell and the Priess cell, and was used as a probe for homologous transcripts. The major part of this probe could be hybridized to RNAs from all the human neoplasias studied: cultured cell lines derived from leukemias, malignant lymphomas or sarcomas, leukemic cells or solid tumors (sarcomas and carcinomas) recovered from patients. In contrast, only a minor portion of Raji cell tsDNA could be hybridized to RNAs from non‐malignant cells, normal human lymphoid cells or fibroblasts grown in culture, fetal and chorioplacental tissues. It is concluded that a common multigenic set is activated in a wide variety of, and perhaps in all, human neoplasias.