RESTRICTION-FRAGMENT-LENGTH-POLYMORPHISM OF THE L-MYC ONCOGENE IN NON-HODGKINS-LYMPHOMA PATIENTS FROM INDIA

We examined 89 non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) patients of Indian origin for EcoRI restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) of the L-myc gene with a view to testing the hypothesis that the presence of the L -myc S-allele predisposes towards NHL. We found no significant differe nce either in the distribution of the LL, LS and SS genotypes or in th e allelic frequencies between the patient group and the control group with the frequencies of L-myc alleles, L (10.0 kb) and S (6.6 kb), bei ng 0.56 and 0.44, respectively, in the patient group and 0.54 and 0.46 , respectively, in the control group. However, a higher proportion (70 %) of the S-allele was observed in our control group of normal healthy volunteers. Thus, the presence of L-myc S-allele did not indicate inc reased susceptibility or predisposition to the malignancy. (C) 1998 El sevier Science Ireland Ltd.