RATIONALE: Studying samples of tumor tissue from patients with cancer in the laboratory may help doctors learn more about changes that occur in DNA and find biomarkers related to cancer. It may also help doctors find better ways to treat cancer.

PURPOSE: This research trial studies gene expression in samples from patients with rhabdoid tumors.

OBJECTIVES:

• To determine if BRM is silenced in the majority, if not all, rhabdoid tumors by immunohistochemistry in primary tumors.
• To determine if BRG1 is silenced in the majority, if not all, rhabdoid tumors by immunohistochemistry in primary tumors.
• To determine if GATA1 and/or HDAC2 is overexpressed in the same tumors that lack BRM expression.
• To determine if BRM promoter polymorphisms correlate with loss of BRM expression in primary rhabdoid tumors.
• To determine how BRG1 is silenced in primary rhabdoid tumors by sequencing BRG1 exons in genomic DNA derived from frozen samples.

OUTLINE: Archived tumor tissue samples are analyzed for BRM, BRG1, GATA1, and/or HDAC2 expression by immunohistochemistry. BRM- and BRG1-negative samples are also analyzed.

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Tumor samples from patients diagnosed with rhabdoid tumors
• Matched frozen tumor tissue from BRG1-negative tumors (preferred) or matched genomic DNA from tumors, 100 ng per tumor from BRG1-negative tumors
• Any source of DNA from BRG1-negative tumors (tumors, blood, etc.)
• Matched frozen tumor tissue from BRM-negative tumors to confirm that BRM is not mutated or altered but rather epigenetically suppressed when lost in rhabdoid tumors

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

• Not specified

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

• Not specified

Patients diagnosed with rhabdoid tumors