Retinoblastoma is the most common primary intraocular malignancy of childhood. Cytogenetic studies in retinoblastoma patients show the presence of aberrations in many chromosomes. In the present study chromosomal analysis of the peripheral blood leukocytes in retinoblastoma patients showed that the chromosomes 1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 10, 13 and 17 carry aberrations. The more frequent aberrations were 13q14, 6p- and 1q-, where deletion in the 13q14 is considered as a pre-requisite for tumorigenesis and aberrations in 6p and 1q are involved mainly in tumor progression. The less frequent aberrations identified were 3q-, 5p-, 17p-, 8q-, t(17p; 6p) and t(13q; 10q). The results of this study confirm that the retinoblastoma is associated with chromosomal aberrations.
