Distinctive Chromosomal Abnormalities in Histologic Subtypes of Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma

Abstract

Using a new high-resolution technique for chromosomal analysis, we have successfully studied biopsy specimens of lymph nodes from 42 of 44 patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and have categorized them using the new international histologic formulation and immunologic markers. Abnormalities of the clonal chromosomes were detected in all 42 patients. Three recurrent chromosomal aberrations were found to correlate with certain histologic types: a translocation between chromosomes 18 and 14 in 16 of 19 patients with follicular lymphomas (small cleaved cell, mixed cell, and large cell); a translocation between chromosomes 8 and 14 in 5 of 6 patients with small noncleaved-cell (non-Burkitt's) or large-cell immunoblastic lymphoma; and a trisomy 12 in 4 of 11 patients with small-cell lymphocytic lymphoma. Our findings suggest that characteristic chromosomal defects occur in certain lymphoma subtypes and that high-resolution chromosomal analysis promises to become an important tool in improving our basic understanding of lymphoid cancers.

Detection of bcl-2/JH rearrangement in follicular and diffuse lymphoma: concordant results of peripheral blood and bone marrow analysis at diagnosis

“…In the intermediategrade patients we found bcl-2/JH rearrangements in approximately 34% of bone marrow and peripheral blood samples. This finding is consistent with other studies reporting an overall frequency of approximately 20%-40% of the t(14;18) in this group of patients (Yunis et al, 1982;Lee et al, 1987a;Aisenberg et al, 1988;Yunis et al, 1989;Lambrechts et al, 1992).…”

“…Approximately 85% of FL patients and one-third of patients with diffuse large-cell lymphoma (DLCL) carry the t(14;18) (q32;q21) translocation in tissue specimens, as judged by cytogenic and molecular studies (Yunis et al, 1982;Lee et al, 1987a;Weiss et al, 1987;Ngan et al, 1988;Aisenberg et al, 1988). This translocation results in the juxtaposition of the bcl-2 protooncogene located on chromosome 18 with the immunoglobulin heavy chain gene (JH) on chromosome 14 (Tsujimoto et al, 1984;Bakhshi et al, 1985;Cleary et al, 1986a).…”

Lymphocytic lymphoma/B-chronic lymphocytic leukaemia – An immunohistopathological study of peripheral B lymphocyte neoplasia

“…Unlike the features of follicular neoplasms, where compartmentalization of TH cells (Tubbs et al, 1983) and "NK cells" (Tubbs et al, 1983; occur within the follicular lesions, both TH cells and Leu7+ cells occur as apparent random elements in MLL . T cells are not of the malignant clone in B-CLL (Gharton et al, 1980;Yunis et al, 1982;Fialkow et al, 1978). T suppressor cells in our study were most commonly in the spleen, as others have shown (Kay et al, 1982 …”

In situ localization of follicular lymphoma: description and analysis by laser capture microdissection

“…FLs are characterized by the t(14;18)(q32;q21), 7,8 which juxtaposes the BCL-2 gene on chromosome 18 with the immunoglobulin heavy chain gene locus on chromosome 14, resulting in constitutive expression of bcl-2 protein. [9][10][11][12][13][14][15] Bcl-2 protein is antiapoptotic, leading to the accumulation of follicular B cells that might otherwise be eliminated by programmed cell death.…”