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The anaplastic variant of centrocytic lymphoma is marked by frequent rearrangements of the bcl‐1 gene and high proliferation indices
Author(s) -
OTT M.M.,
OTT G.,
KUSE R.,
POROWSKI P.,
GUNZER U.,
FELLER A.C.,
MÜLLERHERMELINK H.K.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
histopathology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.626
H-Index - 124
eISSN - 1365-2559
pISSN - 0309-0167
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2559.1994.tb00533.x
Subject(s) - lymphoma , pathology , immunohistochemistry , immunophenotyping , anaplastic large cell lymphoma , cd5 , biology , proliferation index , germinal center , antigen , antibody , medicine , immunology , b cell
Ten cases of classic centrocytic lymphoma as defined in the Kiel classification system were investigated for their immunophenotype, their proliferation activity and by means of molecular diagnostics. The findings were compared to those obtained from a group of nine cases of anaplastic centrocytic lymphoma. Both groups showed virtually identical immunohistochemical characteristics with positivity for CD5 and negativity for CD10 and CD23. In the group of anaplastic centrocytic lymphoma, there were considerably higher proliferation indices as documented by staining for the Ki‐67 antigen, up to 80% of the tumour cells being positive. Moreover, the cases of anaplastic centrocytic lymphoma had bcl‐1 gene rearrangements in eight out of nine cases compared with three out of 10 cases of classic centrocytic lymphoma. DNA analysis was not able to detect bcl‐2 gene rearrangement in any case, pointing to a difference compared with lymphomas of germinal centre origin. The coincidence of anaplastic and sometimes blast‐like morphology of the tumour cells, high proliferation index and a rearranged bcl‐1 gene in nearly all cases of anaplastic centrocytic lymphoma support their classification as high‐grade malignant variants of centrocytic lymphoma and suggest a possible role for the bcl‐1 locus not only in the origin but also in the progression of centrocytic lymphomas.