UNBALANCED X-AUTOSOME TRANSLOCATION (X-18)(Q13-P11) IN A CASE OF AGGRESSIVE NATURAL-KILLER NON-HODGKIN-LYMPHOMA

Recent evidence has shown that rare cases of aggressive non-Hodgkin ly mphomas (NHL) derive from cells belonging to the natural killer (NK) l ymphocyte lineage and a new clinico pathologic entity has been propose d. Though well documented in B-and T-cell NHL, chromosome abnormalitie s are rare findings in NK-NHL and to date, no recurrent cytogenetic ab normality has been described. The present study reports the clinical d ata, cytogenetic and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) analysi s of a new case of typical NK-NHL characterized by a primary unbalance d translocation (X;18) (q13;p11). Recent data of X; autosome transloca tion in malignant lymphomas have proposed Xp22 and Xq28 as the locatio n of NHL-related oncogenes. According to other published reports on th e involvement of the Xq13 region in NHL and particularly in aggressive forms, we hypothesize the existence of additional putative lymphoma-a ssociated oncogenes at the band Xq13. (C) Elsevier Science Inc., 1997.