Cytogenetic studies in non‐Hodgkin lymphomas ‐ Results from surgical biopsies

• Cytogenetic analysis using Giemsa banding technique was successful in 30 of the 49 adult patients with nonHodgkin lymphomas investigated. The results are correlated with previous findings in 48 non‐Hodgkin lymphoma patients studied by means of fine needle aspiration in our laboratory. As 8 patients were included in both series, the total number successfully investigated was 70. The success rate with both sampling techniques was equivalent, and both methods also seemed to give qualitatively similar information about chromosome pattern. However, cells with a normal diploid karyotype were more frequent in the surgical biopsies. In the total material, normal karyotypes only were found in 10 patients. In two patients the aberrations were too complex to allow evaluation. The chromosome variation among the remaining 58 cases was distinctly nonrandom. Chromosomes 3, 7, 12, and 18 were preferentially gained, whereas chromosomes 1, 6, and 14 were most often involved in structural rearrangements. A 14q+ marker chromosome was the single most frequent abnormality; originating through t(14; 18) (q32; q21) in 10 of 23 cases. The second most common structural aberration was a deletion of the long arm of chromosome 6 with breakpoints at bands q15 and q21 (12 cases). At least one of the two most common numerical and/or structural changes, +7, +12, 14q+, and 6q‐, were present in 39 of the 58 patients with aberrations (67%). Longitudinal studies demonstrated karyotypic evolution during the course of the disease in five of six patients. Simultaneous samples from different tumor sites were studied in 10 patients. The findings in 9 cases suggested a monoclonal origin; in one case totally unrelated karyotypes were found in two different lymph nodes at third relapse, suggesting a multifocal origin.

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