Abstract

Genetic alteration are a key feature of cancer cells and typically target biological processes and pathways that contribute cancer pathogenesis. Detection of these large genetic alterations has an increasingly important role in determining patient diagnosis and care. Molecular cytogenetic techniques. There are two major product platforms that assess genomic alteration at various levels of resolution. Fluorescence In Situ Hybridisation (FISH) techniques and related technology of Comparative Genomic Hybridisation (CGH) allow detection of genesized or larger alterations in the genome. CGH is a type of FISH technique that compares and measures differences in copy number changes between 2 DNA samples, the test and control sample, and also provides a map of chromosomal regions that are gained or loss. More importantly, CGH analyses have allowed highly acurate localization of specific genetic alteration that, for example, are associated with tumor progression, therapy response or patient outcome. The techniques have proven to be useful for identification of previously unknown genetic changes and genes that play an important role in tumor carcinogenezis. In this article, prominence of the CGH in oncological research are discussed.