Detection of instability in regions of genomic DNA containing simple tandem repeats

A method of analyzing micro-satellite loci, comprising steps of: a) providing primers for co-amplifying a set of at least 13 microsatellite loci of human genomic DNA, comprising at least six mononucleotide repeat loci selected from the group consisting of BAT-25, BAT-26, BAT-40, MybT22, TGF-Beta R2 and MTIXT20 and at least four dinucleotide repeat loci selected from the group consisting of D18S58, D2S123, D5S346, D17S250 and at least three tetranucleotide repeat loci selected from the group consisting of D18S51, D7S820 and CSF1PO; b) co-amplifying the set of at least six microsatellite loci from at least one sample of genomic DNA in a multiplex amplification reaction, using at least one oligonucleotide primer for each locus which is fluorescently labeled, thereby producing amplified DNA fragments; and c) determining the size of the amplified DNA fragments