[Assessment of translocations in routine diagnostics of a surgical pathology unit]

According to the current WHO classification of haematopoietic and lymphoid tissue, recurrent genetic aberrations constitute diagnostic markers for the histomorphological diagnosis of malignancies in these tissues. In lymphoma, translocations represent such genetic aberrations. Apart from their diagnostic impact, there is increasing evidence for their prognostic and predictive value. Despite the numerous translocations known in Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), few are applied in routine diagnostics on a regular basis. To date, translocations have gained particular significance in B-cell NHLs, in contrast to T-cell NHLs where few are characterised. Refined tissue processing facilitates determination of translocations not only in fresh tissue, but increasingly also informalin fixed, paraffin embedded, and even decalcified biopsies. Hybridisation procedures (Southern blotting, FISH) and gene amplification methods (PCR, RT-PCR) are the primary molecular techniques employed to identify translocations. The article deals with the advantages and disadvantages of the currently used molecular techniques for the investigation of translocations in routine hematopathology diagnostics.