[DNA diagnosis of hematopoietic malignancies]

The recent advances in molecular biology and gene engineering have contributed considerably to the diagnosis and treatment of hematopoietic malignancies, such as leukemia and malignant lymphoma. These advances also made possible precise determination of the clonal origin of malignant cells, the subtype of leukemia or lymphoma, and the clinical prognosis in each patient. Furthermore, minimal residual malignant cells in leukemia or lymphoma patients after achieving complete remission could be detected by DNA analysis. Based on these analyses, treatment can theoretically be tailored for each patient. We discuss in the present paper the usefulness of DNA or gene analyses of immunoglobulin heavy chain gene in clonal assessment of lymphocytic malignancies and in detecting minimal residual disease in the patient.