L. Trumper et al., Detection of the t(2;5)-associated NPM/ALK fusion cDNA in peripheral bloodcells of healthy individuals, BR J HAEM, 103(4), 1998, pp. 1138-1144
The translocation t(2;5), which leads to the fusion of the nucleophosmin ge
ne (NPM) on chromosome 5q35 to the receptor kinase ALK on chromosome 2p23,
is found in CD30(+) anaplastic large cell lymphomas and some cases of B-cel
l lymphoma. Hodgkin's disease (HD) is a malignant lymphoma characterized by
large multinucleated tumour cells, Hodgkin and Reed-Sternberg (H&RS) cells
, surrounded by a dense lymphohistiocytic infiltrate. Our group recently de
monstrated NPM/ALK fusion cDNAs by single-cell RT-PCR in < 3% of CD30(+) tu
mour cells in 2/9 cases of HD. To further delineate the relevance of this f
inding for HD, we studied the occurrence of NPM/ALK fusion genes in periphe
ral blood cells of healthy donors by RT-PCR. NPM/ALK fusion cDNAs were foun
d by RT-PCR in 14/29 healthy individuals and confirmed by hybridization wit
h a breakpoint-specific oligonucleotide. Due to the low rate of NPM/ALK-pos
itive cells in the peripheral blood of positive individuals, an assignment
to a defined cellular subpopulation was not possible. We conclude that NPM/
ALK fusion genes are present in peripheral blood cells of healthy donors. A
fter t(14;18) and t(9;22), t(2;5) represents the third example of tumour-as
sociated translocation products in blood cells of apparently healthy donors
. The implications of this finding are discussed.