Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma in Chinese patients: immunophenotypic and cytogenetic analyses of 124 cases

In diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), BCL2 expression usually correlates with the t(14;18) (q32;q21) in germinal center B-cell (GCB) subtype and with gain/amplification of chromosome 18q21 in the activated B cell-like subtype. Studies have suggested that the GCB subtype is less common in Chinese than in Western populations. We studied 124 Chinese DLBCL cases using immunohistochemical, conventional cytogenetics, and interphase fluorescence in situ hybridization analyses. A cohort of 114 well-characterized DLBCL cases from Western populations was also analyzed for comparison. Lower incidences of the GCB subtype (P = .0001) and the t(14;18) translocation (P = .0001) were present in Chinese cases. However, BCL2 overexpression was more frequent in Chinese compared with Western cases (P = .0054). BCL2 expression was associated with gain of chromosome 18/18q in the Chinese and Western cohorts. More interestingly, BCL2 expression was associated with gain of chromosome 3/3q in Chinese DLBCL cases, whereas this association was less significant in Western cases.