TRANSFORMATION OF FOLLICULAR LYMPHOMA WITH BOTH T(14-18) AND T(8-22)

The majority of low grade non-Hodgkin's follicular lymphoma undergo cl inical progression to intermediate and high grade lymphoma, but the mo lecular mechanisms involved in this transformation are not yet well un derstood, In this article, we describe the case of a 66 year old man w ith follicular non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), in whom a centroblastic l eukaemic transformation led to death in six months, despite a transien t period of remission. At the time of transformation, cytogenetic anal ysis revealed the original coexistence of t(14;18)(q32;q21) and t(8;22 )(q24;q11). These results were confirmed by fluorescent in situ hybrid ization, while molecular analysis showed a BCL2-JH rearrangement but f ailed to detect a c-myc rearrangement or any additional p53 mutation. Our observations would therefore suggest other mechanisms to be involv ed in the transformation of follicular NHL.