Background: It is sometimes difficult to detect the bone marrow infiltration of lymphoma cells, because lymphoma cells are not distinguishable from normal lymphocytes due to the similarity of their phenotype.
Methods: Bone marrow involvement of 17 samples of 15 patients with follicular lymphoma, whose lymphoma cells were confirmed to harbor the translocation of chromosome14q32, were examined by microscopic analysis of bone marrow smear and biopsy, flow cytometorical analysis (FCM), chromosomal analysis of G-banding and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). FISH was performed using a probe, which detects the split of IGH gene on 14q32.
Results: The positivity of FISH was highest among these methods and FISH was able to detect the bone marrow involvement in one case who was defined as negative by bone marrow biopsy.
Conclusions: FISH can be used for detection of bone marrow involvement of malignant lymphoma that carries chromosomal rearrangement involving 14q32.
Copyright 2004 Elsevier B.V.