Detection of t(14;18) in Turkish follicular lymphomas using the polymerasechain reaction

A t(14;18) translocation is closely associated with the follicular lymphoma but is also seen in diffuse B cell lymphomas with a previous history of a follicular lymphoma as well as de novo diffuse lymphomas. Estimation of the frequency of t(14;18) in follicular lymphoma vary widely from 33 to 89%. F urthermore, no extensive data have been published on the frequency of t(14; 18) in Turkish cases of follicular lymphoma. Representative tissue blocks f rom 67 patients with follicular lymphoma, 12 cases of diffuse large B cell lymphomas and 11 cases of reactive hyperplasias were examined for the prese nce of this translocation using PCR. DNA probes capable of detecting rearra ngement at both the major and minor break point regions were employed. We c ould detect t(14; 18) in 46 out of 67 cases (68.7%) of follicular and 25% o f diffuse large B cell lymphomas. In follicular lymphomas 64.2% of these br eak points were at mbr and 4.5% were at the mcr region. Review of the liter ature showed that comparable results have been obtained previously using mo lecular techniques. Our data showed that despite the relative infrequency o f follicular lymphomas in the Turkish population these lymphomas share a co mmon molecular pathogenesis with involvement of bcl-2 gene and background i ncidence of such rearrangement is similar in all populations, regardless th e incidence of folicular lymphoma. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All right s reserved.