Identification of microsatellite length polymorphism by a polymerase chain reaction-based assay at IL-1β gene locus in cancer cells

It has long been considered that genetic instability is an integral component of human neoplasia, however the frequency of microsatellite instability in human melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer was less evidenced. We report here an alteration at the complex dinucleotide repeat (TC)n sequence in the interleukin 1-β gene locus by polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based assay in mouse melanoma as well as in various cancer cells, which may provide a simple, rapid, non-radioactive screening assay for cancer detection.