Cytogenetics of lymphomas

Abstract

Cytogenetic analysis relies on the production of banded metaphase chromosomes for analysis, but chronic lymphoid malignancies have proved notoriously difficult to karyotype as they have extremely variable rates of growth in culture. The highest number of proliferating cells has been identified in diffuse large B-cell lymphomas (DLBCL) and Burkitt lymphomas (BL), whilst follicular lymphomas (FL) and lymphoplasmacytic lymphomas show decreased proliferation when compared with normal mature B lymphocytes [1]. Therefore, it has been necessary to use a range of tests to determine the genetics of lymphomas, including fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) applied to interphase cells (i-FISH) and metaphase spreads, multicoloured FISH, chromosome comparative genomic hybridisation (CGH) and array-based strategies: array CGH (aCGH) and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) analysis.